Under Grey Skies
by Oceans in Hand
Summary: Hearts are required for love- batteries don't cut it. AU, DouWata 104, KuroFai. Complete!
1. Introduction

**Introduction chapter. Fanfic is AU, and DouWata. Hope you like it : )**

**-Oceans**

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Contrary to the vision inspired by its name, Summerfield was a dreary place. In fact, if one could classify a city by color, there is no doubt as to which our dear metropolis would be- that is, a deep, dull, gray. A visitor to this somber city would surely lose himself among the drooping buildings and quite streets in the time it took to heave a sigh. But should he find himself southbound on Ender's Avenue, he will come across Watanuki's garage.

Actually, there _was_ such a stranger wandering the streets on the day our story begins, and he carried quite a burden on his back…

***

Watanuki didn't want the garage. He'd said as much to Yuuko, the drunken bitch, at least a hundred times before she'd spirited away in the middle of the night, trailing the stomach-rolling scent of alcohol behind her. She hadn't listened to him, as usual, and what's more- she'd left him with her trusty sidekick, her pain-in-the-ass junior, black Mokona.

When the sun rose behind the clouds on the eighth Yuukoless day, Watanuki finally, grudgingly admitted that he was going to have to suck it up. Besides, with his boozehound boss MIA and in _no_ position to get in his way, there were a lot of things he could do to help the old place. The sign needed rewiring, the building repainting, oh, and he could get started on cleaning the grease spots off the floor, and organize the storage units and the office…

The office. The papers. The lease on the building was paid up for the next four months. He needed to dig out the business records and make sure…

Well, anyway. That is how Watanuki Kimihiro, at age nineteen, became the owner and bill-payer of Ichihara Garage. Rah, rah, reh.


	2. Rain and Storm

**Oh...dear, I don't know _how_ many mistakes are in this...I've tinkered with it so many times, and haven't given it a full one-over since I slapped the keyboard and declared FUCK IT. Soooo tired of this chapter. And I have no clue how to start the next one. Don't expect it for a good long while : (**

**More notes at the end. Please, review? Bully me into editing it before Valentines D- wait, no, before Spring Break, knowing me. Blah. **

**Hoooppee yoou like it!**

**-Oceans**

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Watanuki woke to a Mokona playing one-person popcorn on his chest and the sound of a heavy rain pattering on the metal roof. Sitting up with a groan, he swatted the automaton away and fished blearily for his glasses. Mokona climbed back up onto the bed.

"WA-ta-NU-Ki~! It's _wet _outside! And _cold!_"

"Hurrah." He rubbed his eyes. "What time is it?"

Mokona tapped a stubby arm against his chin. "Hrmm…almost seven. The sun rose _awfully_ early today! I think it's a sign!"

Watanuki had fallen asleep in his one-piece zip-up again, he discovered unhappily. He fastened the belt and jerked on a white tee shirt, leaving the top half of the uniform to flutter after him as he forced open the bedroom door- which encompassed breaking his shoulder against the metal slab, it was warped in the frame- and ventured into the main corridor. A lazy hand drifted up, trailing fingertips along the cold wall until they tumbled over a series of switches. Watanuki hitched his stride a little, and flipped each one as it met his fingers. Harsh white lights flickered on, subdued whirring noises coming from the walls.

The garage, the main part of it anyway, was a good sized square. There was an office in the corner, and two Plexiglas windows so the workers (if Yuuko had hired any) could spy on the management all day. A number of junky cars took up, all told, three fourths of the floor space, and stacks of tires, tool cabinets, and stray wires connected to who-knows-what cluttered the rest.

Watanuki shuddered at the familiar mess, dusted his hands reflexively. Mokona sprung up from the floor and floated gently back down, losing a high whistle just beneath the mechanic's ear.

"You really plan to clean this mess? Good luuuucccck…"

Watanuki glowered. Weaving around and between, he pulled a bucket and a few things from a closet and accepted a pair of thick gloves from Mokona.

"I suppose you don't intend to help me?" He said grimly, pulling the gloves on with a few sharp motions.

"Heeheehe!" Mokona giggled and bounced away.

Watanuki sighed, glanced fleetingly at the ceiling, listening to the pounding above, and got to work. He followed each wire to its source, plucked tools off the ground and stored them all in the proper spot. He was moving the cars- piece by piece- into the lot next to the garage when, after dropping a bent fender in water-logged grass, Mokona suddenly started beating on the window. Watanuki brushed the hood of his rain coat back a little and squinted at the frantic robot.

"Thhhrs hah mahnen!!" The fuzzy squeaked.

"There's a…?" He repeated, trying to make sense of the sounds that reached him through glass and rain. The downpour was so thick, he could hardly see the Mokona. It looked like he was dancing, but…oh. Oh. He was pointing. Watanuki looked down Ender's Avenue, the direction the Mokona seemed to be indicating. There was…a…

_Oh_. Right, _mahnen._ Man. It looked more like a foggy black, bipedal blob through the rain and mist, but it moved like a man at least. As Watanuki watched, the stranger stumbled and only barely saved himself from kissing wet pavement.

Watanuki jogged out to meet him without another thought after that, stretching out a helpful arm as he drew closer. The man was carrying something strangely large and assumedly heavy, if his bent posture was anything to go by. It was wrapped in thick, black plastic, possibly a garbage bag, and secured with bright blue stripes of electrical tape.

"Sir," Watanuki cried over the rain. "Let me help you! Where are you going?"

The man looked up. The brim of a dark baseball cap moved to reveal a slim face and round glasses with fogged over lenses. As the man smiled, Watanuki realized that the stranger was taller than him. "Where you just came from! Ichihara Garage!" His eyebrows rose in surprise, then he shrugged and helped the man to the garage.

"Some rain! Does this happen often?" The stranger asked.

Watanuki nodded at the storm drains, or, more precisely, at the size of them. "All the time."

Inside, he noted that Mokona was nowhere to be found, but before Watanuki could dwell on it any longer, a heavy, suspiciously solid _thump_ sounded as the stranger lifted his package off his back and set it up in a recently cleaned spot.

"Whew! What a load, eh? Been totting this thing for a long time, boy."

Watanuki delved his fingers into his hair, scratching his scalp gently as he eyed the…thing. "What is it?"

"It's busted, is what it is. I called Yuuko a while ago and she promised to take a look at it. Say, where is she?" He laughed good-naturedly, looking around. "Where're you hiding her?

Watanuki growled as the message, and what it entailed sunk in. "Sounds like her…I'm sorry sir, but Yuuko disappeared little more than a week ago. I don't know when she'll be back."

"Oh? Hm," The man propped his elbow on the package, leaning a little. "Well, you're her assistant, right?"

"Um, yeah." Unfortunately.

"Will you take a look at him? He needs fixing, he really does." The man nodded, patting the black plastic affectionately.

"I…suppose I could, but I can't promise anything, mister…?"

"Reed, call me Reed." Reed smiled. "And that's okay, so long as you look. Ho, and do you mind if I use your phone? Got a call to make."

"S-sure. Phone's in the office." Watanuki stuttered as the stranger- as Reed brushed past him. He gestured weakly at the package. "So can I…?"

"Have at it," he called, without looking back. He closed the door behind him.

Watanuki stared for a second and then shook himself. Sparing a last glance around for Mokona, he started peeling away the electrical tape and plastic. When it was all laid aside, he blinked, unconsciously breathing a whistle of admiration.

It was a persocom, and a damned expensive one. Shaped like a young male of eastern descent, the com was at least six feet tall, and appeared to be built to do anything from hard labor to valet services. Watanuki circled around it, looking for the manufacturing information that was usually stamped between the shoulder blades, but…He brushed his fingers over the unmarked organic polymer, puzzled, and looked back at Reed, who was chatting away amiably in the office. Shrugging, resigned, he sought out the connection ports and found them in the standard places, on the right hip and inside the right wrist. Then he attached a retinal scanner over the persocom's eyes, plugged a series of cords into the ports, booted up a laptop and set a diagnostics scan to run.

Less than four minutes in, a popup announced in blaring, blocky green letters, 'ERROR'. He frowned and restarted the scan, and sooner than before, the message reappeared. Grunting, Watanuki got up to fetch the tools he'd need to do the scan manually (which would take _hours_), and popped open the hatch at the base of the spine. Pushed aside a collection of colored wires, he mumbled procedure under his breath.

"Main generator located beneath the foremost cortex, energy lobe glows green if operating at full capacity…" The procedure he had no trouble with. It was the actual _problem_ he couldn't pin down. After he checked the secondary power channel twice, he ran for a notebook to mark his progress.

Two hours later he sat, glaring at the com with an energy.

It _should_ be operating _perfectly_. Nothing was wrong.

But something obviously must be, because it was just…_standing_ there!

Watanuki drummed his fingers against his hips, leaving behind grease spots that he'd have to scrub later.

He didn't want to…but what else he could check?

Shoulders sagging, he sighed, and moved to drag out the heavy duty equipment. Removing a persocom's head is nothing an amateur has any business attempting. Watanuki had practiced on several junk coms Yuuko had gotten her paws in the past, but he'd never worked on a customer's before. Sweat bullets appeared on his forehead as he took hold of a cluster of hair thin wires. A lot of them had to be cut and mended again when he reattached it later. Finally lifting the head clear of the body, he held the piece of tech between his greasy hands as gently as if it were a live butterfly, and carried it to a work table.

He looked. But, no matter how thorough he was he couldn't find the problem. The persocom really _should_ be working. In fact, it should be functioning at maximum output, factory-fresh. Nothing on the inside suggested the outside, the current stasis. Watanuki boiled, never one to leave a project unfinished- that was Yuuko's job- but had to admit: he'd reached a dead end. He reattached the head, a venture which took twice as long as the act of removing it, whipped his hands, and turned, preparing to deliver the news to Reed, who-

-wasn't in the office anymore.

Watanuki blinked, and looked about the garage. No stranger, still no Mokona for that matter. He jerked on his rain coat and stepped out.

Dark had fallen and the rain had let up, but a fog had risen and the streetlamps did little to illuminate the gloom. He walked, peering into the inkiness in the direction that was…probably Ender's Avenue, until bolt of lightning stabbed downward. A few seconds later thunder followed, sounding like rock slide overhead. Watanuki flinched away from the sky and jogged home.

Cursing the weather and people who pulled disappearing acts and alcoholic bosses and life in general, he dropped the sopping coat on its hook by the door.

"Watanuki-wata!" A furry black rocket shot out of nowhere and slammed into his collarbones. "It's scary! Scary!"

"Oof- mo-Mokona!" He grabbed the bot by the rabbit ears. "Where have you been all day? Did you see where Reed went?"

"Reed? Who's Reed?" The dangling robot tilted its head to the side (which looked very odd, considering the dangling), blinking large eyes cutely.

"Oh…nevermind." Watanuki released him, sighing. "A customer, or…something like one…" He saw the white glow of the persocom in the dark, and threw a hand toward it. "He left his com, so I guess he'll have to come back."

Mokona hovered, its ears flapping gently. Watanuki didn't think that was what held it aloft. "Think he will?" It said.

Watanuki, in the process of locking the garage door, threw a look over his shoulder at the somewhat…enigmatic tone the robot's voice had taken. Shaking his head, deciding to leave it for tomorrow, he finished and drifted across the floor, rubbing his stiff neck with only slightly more pliable fingers.

He was tired. Of course he was tired, he'd been working for hours, now that he thought about it, and hadn't eaten anything, hadn't even drunk anything since that morning. Watanuki beelined for his bed and dropped onto it, thinking that he was going to smack himself when he woke up the next morning in his uniform.

The storm raged; thunder shook the building. Watanuki pretended not to notice when Mokona cuddled up against him, or the trembles that racked the little bot's body with each new boom and flash. He felt asleep not long after.

And it made sense that, because he was asleep, he didn't know that during the night, one particularly long bolt of bleached white light stuck the roof of Ichihara Garage, or that secret powerlines in the walls swelled and sparked with the power they channeled. Or, that high beams on previously thought totaled cars flickered on so violently the bulbs popped, and power tools rattled over desktops.

The phone rang in the office, and one dead persocom opened its eyes.

* * *

**Yeah, I do mean Clow Reed by Reed, that's not supposed to be secret, so nothing's spoiled =) But I've never...er..._read_ anything with him actually..._in_ it. So...what is his character like? Did I totally miss it?**

**Oh. Forgot to mention, Ender's Avenue is a salute to _Ender's Game_ by Orson Scott Card, which pwns. Also, I don't know tech speak, and I've never popped open a PC or messed with wires, so, if it sounds fake...eer, um, oops.**


	3. Wires

**Whoa, what is up with me lately? Write write write write. Not that that's a bad thing, it's a ton of fun. Well, I guess I was wrong about how long it would take for this chapter to come out...ah well. You guys don't care! This one's pretty much all dialouge, no description, and very short, but I don't think it's too bad : )**

**Please review. Guys got any ideas where this is headed? Cuz I don't! Still trying to figure that out.**

**-Oceans**

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**Wires**

_**- "**Oh course it'll work, why wouldn't it? We've been preparing for this for years." - _

Mokona hummed happily.

It was very early, and very quiet, apart from the cheerful automaton's tune. Gray dawn light bled through the windows, and a person could hear water flowing in the storm drains outside if they held their breath. It was still a while before Mokona could wake Watanuki without risking loose screws, so it was taking care of its personal responsibilities.

Until it's overly large ears caught a sound, a shuffling, made by some foreign object. Mokona froze, listening…what could it be? It didn't ear any breathing, but the sound, it must be at least human-sized.

There was a clatter as the something bumped a table, and a shower of screws fell to the floor. Mokona took that as its cue and shot off down the hall, mysteriously blowing Watanuki's door open before he reached it.

Watanuki came awake to much the some thing he had the morning before- only, yesterday, it had been minus a great deal of panicking and shouting.

"Watanuki Watanuki there's something in the garage and I don't know what it it's but it's breathing and moving and the screws are on the floor and-"

"Mokona!" Only it came out all garbled, sounded more like 'nah cone ma'. "What the-?"

The robot paused long enough to take a huge gulp of air, its mouth spread wide enough to swallow an apple whole-

Watanuki, gaining lucidity, slapped a hand over its maw. "Now, quietly, _slowly-_ _what_?"

"There's something in the garage. I dunno what it is." Mokona said through his hand.

Watanuki stared for a beat, before sighing and getting out of bed. The building had been secured last night, so _obviously_ nothing could have gotten in, stupid, alcoholic robot-

He'd reached the main floor, and saw a tall man looking at a hammer as attentively as if it were talking to him. He was preparing to speak before he noticed- finally- that the man wasn't wearing any clothing. But, no, that wasn't all…

Blue eyes went round with a sudden comprehension.

"Oi!" He cried. "You!"

The persocom looked up at the call, blinking innocently. Its expression was clear and open.

"You're fixed! How is that? What happened?"

The com's mouth opened, but no reply came. Its eyebrows quirked with confusion, and a small part of Watanuki marveled at its capacity for expression. It shrugged, one hand lowering the hammer carefully to the work desk.

"I don't know." It said.

The mechanic frowned, stepping closer. "Do you know who your owner is?"

A frown. "Owner?"

"Take that as a no…do you know what you _are?_"

The com looked down at itself, and then ran its eyes over Watanuki. It pointed without energy.

"I'm like you. I'm what you are."

Now it was Watanuki's turn to frown. "No you're not. On the outside, maybe, but our insides are completely different."

"Why?"

It was…almost like a child, he thought. New. Fresh. "Later," He said carefully. "Tell me, what _do_ you know? About yourself, this place- anything."

Watanuki wondered what moron that it would be a good idea to give a persocom such golden eyes as the thing stared into him, his, strangely…intense. He fidgeted under the machine's scrutiny despite himself. After a minute, the com unit slowly shook its head no.

"I know…nothing. At all. Why is this?"

"Believe me, I wish I knew." Watanuki watched suspiciously as a hand was stretched tentatively towards his face. The fingers brushed his cheek, and the com watched, its face a mask of wonder.

"Who are you?" It asked.

Its hand was still on his face. Watanuki's eye twitched. "Watanuki Kimihiro." He answered in clipped tones.

"Who am I?"

The truth suddenly struck him as cruel. He was weary of crushing that childlike quality, that air of innocence that the com seemed to exhale like carbon. It almost made him forget the thing was filled with wires. "I don't…"

He changed his mind. Changed his answer.

Watanuki sighed, as if burdened. "We'll find out."


	4. Gasping

**-Gasp- The chapters! They're shhhrrriiinnnkkkinnng!!**

**...Bleh. Typical. I dun like long chapters anyway. They're a bitch to edit, I've discovered. Anyway, I'd been sitting on this chapter for a week or so, because I kind of wanted to go about it differently, but then I decided that I liked this one and I'll just revamp in my head : ) Sorry for the wait guys, I feel like I'd been decieving you with my...unusually prompt updates before. This is a lot closer to my usualness. And I'm having trouble making sentences that make sense -runs away-**

**Oh yeah, further excuses, I'm grounded til who-knows-when for an F on my report card, so chapters are gonna take even longer, depending on how much computer time I manage to scrap by with...(I've got this thing with physically writing. I unconciously aviod detail).**

**Review? Please? You guys are really good about that for this story, and I thank you very much for it -heart-**

**-Oceans**

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**Gasping**

After Watanuki managed to pull the terrified Mokona out from under his bed and explain the something-in-the-garage, and introduce him to the awakened com, they began, at the com's assertion, to think of a name for it.

Mokona ended up being the one to pick it. And it wasn't long after he did that he and Watanuki fell into a rigorous debate concerning whether or not one should be gender-specific when referring to or talking to a robot. Mokona won, but only because after he ran out of valid points he brought Doumeki, the newly named com, into the conversation by the elbow. Watanuki couldn't find it in himself to argue with it- him- the _persocom_, and gave in. Never mind that the humanoid bot hadn't actually said anything.

Damn. That was a weakness that he could _not_ permit. But how to overcome it? Perhaps he could replace those eyes with a pair of a slightly less hypnotic color…?

Oh. What the _hell. _The jokes Yuuko w- could make out of his current situation. The thought was enough to make him physically cringe.

All jokes aside though, Watanuki felt somewhat guilty at giving the strange, soft-spoken persocom a name, because, didn't people always say that once you named it, you kept it? Or at least, ended up keeping it. The com still wasn't _his-_ Reed would come to collect it sooner or later, and Watanuki wasn't sure how he would take the news that, not only was his machine suffering from amnesia- or data deletion- it insisted being referred to by it's- _his,_ his- name, Doumeki Shizuka.

Whatever, Watanuki thought, when he finally decided- as long as the bot was in his care, there was no reason why he shouldn't make use of it. And if his amazing disappearing owner suddenly _re_appeared and offered any protest, there was always that _you-left-it-so-it's-_mine! argument…Geez. He hadn't used _that_ one since grade school.

When all the arguments and introductions and naming ceremonies had been finished, Watanuki suited up and went to finish the spring cleaning he had begun the day before. Mokona, predictably, found something better to do once the work started, but Doumeki proved to be a great help. For one thing, the robot was considerably stronger than Watanuki, and all of a sudden moving the fragmented cars into the lot was a simple task. And while the mist was thick and unrelenting as the day drug along, it never once even drizzled, a rarity for your typical Summerfield springtime. The following day was much the same.

And then, on the third day, something strange happened, and everyday after that held a surprise. The morning dawned as usual- grey, quiet, damp, etcetera. Watanuki was perched precariously atop a ladder, two hands full of sparking wires, his rubber-clothed forearms elbow deep inside the flashing green sign that advertised the garage. Flashing, you see; it wasn't supposed to do that.

Doumeki stood, ever the pinnacle of patience, beneath the wobbling ladder, arms lifted out a few inches, ready to catch the mechanic above him should he fall. An open tool box sat next to his feet.

Watanuki took the needle-nose pliers out from between his teeth and twisted two wires together. Without looking down, he held out a hand and asked for the tape.

When no tape came, he looked, and saw the persocom on its knees, holding its chest, and…?

Watanuki stumbled down from the ladder, nearly falling, and dragged the com through the mud and inside, all the while pretending he hadn't thought what he had.

That if he hadn't known Doumeki was a robot, an inorganic organism, he would have said he was gasping for breath.


	5. Motor Oil

**Motor Oil**

Watanuki went to work on the com, on Doumeki to discover what was wrong. Or, he tried to, anyway. The persocom was…different, somehow. The polymer that made up its skin was oddly resistant, forcing him to cut the seams to open the hatch in the robot's side. And when he did _that_, a mysterious, clear plasma coated his hands and made his fingers stick together. After four hours search turned up a dozen new questions and no answers, he gave up, replaced everything he'd disturbed, and shut down the garage for the night, giving Doumeki an apologetic pat as he passed him.

He couldn't have been asleep for longer than two hours when he was gently shaken awaken by a large hand. Watanuki blinked sleep from his eyes, grouping for his glasses as he waited for his vitamin A to kick in. His mouth dropped when it did.

"H-how…? I shut you down! How do you keep turning yourself on?!"

The persocom ignored him, shaking its head. Its hand hovered before its chest which- Watanuki's heart very nearly stopped- was moving.

Doumeki looked up at him from beneath heavy brows, his eyes strangely narrowed with suspicion and fear and wide with wonder at once. "What is…happening?"

As mobility slowly returned to his body, the mechanic swallowed thickly, watching the regular motion as the…as the…persocom _breathed_.

"I guess this means I can't cut you open anymore," he quipped weakly.

***

Doumeki had problems remembering to breathe. He wasn't used to it, that much was obvious, and several times the next day he would fall to his knees, sucking air like a drowning man returned to the surface. Watanuki who was, admittedly, clearly, out of his depth, still did his best to find out what was happening to the com, but it was even harder to turn up _questions_ this time, because he was afraid to cut through the polymer- which he found himself thinking of as skin on more than one occasion.

Mokona offered up a few theories, but all of them sounding like they'd come directly from books or the latest sci-fi/drama program imported from the Nether Countries. When Watanuki's flying wrench clipped his ear and sent _him_ spinning end over end, the little automaton wisely decided to make himself scarce.

Watanuki was in the middle of convincing himself that he didn't need to pay a visit to his contacts in Wintervale when Doumeki started hacking violently from where he was picking up tools off the floor. Watanuki wearily rose out of his chair in the office and went to see what was wrong now. He crouched down next to the trembling figure, patting the com's back habitually.

"What's wrong?" He asked.

The com cut off mid-cough, taking deep, wheezing breaths. He dropped his hand from his face.

"Something…in the air. It hurts my nose and throat when I breathe."

Watanuki noticed sourly how easily the com said the word _breathe._ Apparently, it wasn't having the kind of trouble he was with this new concept. Then… "Wait, you mean _smell_?"

Doumeki blinked at him. It wasn't quite the innocent, vulnerable action it used to be. It hadn't been since the second day, really. "Smell? Is that what it is?"

"And taste, sounds like." Watanuki glared. "When you breathe in through your nose and you…" His words trailed off. How to describe _smell_ without using the word _smell_? He struggled. "Well…you feel things…If it hurts, it's probably the motor oil you're breathing in. Smelling.

"It takes getting used to." He wrinkled his nose.

Doumeki gave him a look, a mix of disbelief, doubt, and awe, and closed his mouth, drawing in a deep breath of air through his nose, and letting it out again through his mouth.

"Motor oil," he remarked, deadpanned.

"Motor oil." Watanuki confirmed. "But not everything smells so bad, or hurts. Like the air outside, it's not too bad."

Doumeki rose up from his knees slowly, Watanuki following behind. "Can I smell that, then?"

"Sure," But before the word was past his lips, the breathing, smelling robot was already striding toward the door with quick, purposeful steps. The door bounced off the wall and shook so hard Watanuki half thought it would break, and Doumeki stood outside, breathing in deeply, so deeply that his chest expanded like a balloon.

Watanuki, standing under the lip of the roof, took a moment to realize that it was raining- or, misting, rather. Raining very, very lightly. He looked up at the sky, the gray color of it reminiscent of dull silver. Patches of it sparked and throbbed with barely contained lightning, but there was no wind, no thunder. This was good weather in Summerfield.

"Doumeki," he called, turning his face back down. "Do you feel anything?"

The com didn't show that he'd heard, but he replied, quietly but audibly, "Feel?"

"On your skin. Your body. Anything? Can you tell that anything is touching you?"

His response was long in coming.

"…No."

Watanuki made a somewhat playful, somewhat resigned, somewhat annoyed sigh, folding his arms over his chest. A sheet of newspaper rolled by as a gentle wind blew through, heading west.

"Maybe tomorrow, then." He said to himself, only half sarcastic.

* * *

**Lo there! I've been writing a storm since Sunday morning- got up to chapter seven! But it and what I've got of eight need a looooooot o' fixing. But, that's good news! I can't _wait _to get you guys up to six. I've got a surppprriisseee! (giggles like crazy).**


	6. Taller

**Taller  
**

Watanuki felt the need to tell Mokona that he had been _joking_ when he'd commented on Doumeki being able to feel tomorrow, yesterday. The little robot had apparently heard him, and didn't believe that the remark was entirely meaningless. It was _not_ a prediction, dammit!

They'd been arguing for awhile, and weren't getting anywhere. Which was understandable, considering. They just ran over the same points again and again, hopping on to the next one before finishing the _current_ one.

Doumeki was ignoring them, walking around the garage, picking up tools and screws and papers, anything and everything he could get his hands on and mumbling under his breath. A few minutes ago when he had completed his fifth circuit, pausing to grip the back of Watanuki's chair and roll it back and forth over the ground (which got him yelled at), Watanuki heard enough to know that he was cataloging every feeling aloud.

The whole thing- the breathing, smelling, tasting and feeling- was just so _weird_. Questions kept popping up, like, if he could taste, why didn't Doumeki get hungry? Why did he breathe and not sleep? Or go to the bathroom, for that matter.

He was developing a personality, too. The childlike quality to his baring had started to gradually slink away even before the changes had started. Or maybe it was the first change, and just happened to be taking longer? Watanuki didn't really want to wonder if that was important or not. As it was, the growing personality was proving troublesome enough.

He didn't prefer the childlikeness, strangely, over the new personality, even though it was irritating at times. The persocom was taller, you remember? The way he looked down at Watanuki was different now, somehow, and it made him tense and tremble and boil and want to go _crazy_ all at once, whereas, before, he hadn't even realized the com was taller beyond the initial observation. He had _felt_ taller, like he was protecting Doumeki. Now, though…it felt like that was closer to what Doumeki felt. That the mechanic was smaller, weaker, in need of a defender. The mere notion that this was the way he was perceived set the needle of his emotional compass spinning fast enough to break. And always, inevitably, when it finally stopped, the point was hovering over _'pissed off'_.

Those golden eyes didn't raise feelings of pity or a sense of guardianship in him anymore. Doumeki's flat stares made him feel like the hulking persocom was the leader of the pack, that Watanuki was the renegade that wasn't worth his concern, wasn't worth fighting. Like Doumeki was waiting on his submission.

Watanuki, half of his attention devoted to his thoughts, half to Mokona, jumped when he felt fingers move through his hair. He looked up and over his shoulder, growling at the persocom on the other end of the reaching arm.

"What are you doing?" He bit.

When Watanuki had begun to use harsher tones when speaking to him, and had stopped picking his words so carefully, Doumeki either hadn't noticed or hadn't cared. The new shiny, sharp edge to the mechanic's voice seemed to bounce off thick skin. He answered, in no particular hurry, "Feeling."

"Yes, I can _see_ that." Mokona was giggling, grinning. "But why my head? What was wrong with the drill you had a minute ago?"

Doumeki gave him a look like the answer was obvious. "Because it feels nice. It's soft, and it doesn't feel like anything else in here."

Mokona's giggling had escalated into full out laughter now, and Watanuki spared a thought towards violent revenge later. He ducked his head away from the fingers, but the com was persistent and they followed. He shivered when they threaded through, touching his scalp. "Stop it!" He half whined, half shouted, moving out of the way again.

Doumeki, his hand hovering in the air, fingers still curled, shrugged, and went to find something else to pick up.

Mokona rolled through the air, laughing obnoxiously. "Oh, oh! That was so funny, wait until I tell Yuuko!"

Watanuki's blood went cold, and then promptly began to boil. Oh, that little…

Lightbulb.

"Doumeki!" He called, showing the hysterical robot a haughty smirk. "Did I ever tell you how _soft_ Mokona's _ears_ are?"

Mokona's laugh cut off with a squeak as golden eyes flashed, landing on him.

* * *

**Surprise comes next chapter! I don't count the introduction as a chapter-- which really confuses my numbers ?-? Was trying to be somewhat funny and introspective in this chapter--- did I pull it off? Am moving onto to bringing out Doumeki's cannon personality, but the wide-eyed innocence quality wants to stick around and is being stubborn. Meh.**

**Anyway, hope you like! **

**-Oceans**


	7. Contacts

**Contacts**

Watanuki could hear the television in the office going when he came into the main garage the next morning. That was typical. Doumeki didn't need to sleep, so he passed the hours of night by watching the box, or reading, when the late night dramas became too much for him.

What wasn't so typical, he saw when he entered the office, was the persocom passed out and, to all appearances, fast asleep. This latest development left Watanuki gaping for a minute before he brought himself back with a stinging slap to his own forehead.

Sighing, stepping around the sleeping figure, he picked up the telephone and dialed a number he'd hoped he'd never need.

He started to hang up when the third ring sounded in his ear, but-

"What?"

He scowled into the phone. "Is that how you talk to your customers?"

"Kimihiro? Shut up, fuckin' wizard kept me up all night."

Watanuki rubbed his face. "I don't need to hear about your personal life, Kurogane."

A grunt. "So, whadya need?"

"I've got…something really weird here," he supplied at length, watching the persocom's chest move with each deep, slow breath. Doumeki's eyelids flickered as if his eyes were moving beneath. Dreaming?

Watanuki didn't want to even consider it.

Returning his attention to the phone, he realized that the noise he'd been hearing in the back of his head was Kurogane.

"…of weird stuff out there, Summerfield."

"Huh?"

Kurogane growled. "Pay attention, will ya?! I _said,_ you gotta be more specific Summer, there's a lotta freaky shit out there."

"I'm not sure you'll believe me," He confided, hopping a little to sit on the desk.

"Try me." The comeback was dry.

The mechanic's eyes landed on the sleeping com again. "Well…"

***

"But why can't I come too??" Mokona whined, floating along behind the mechanic, ears flapping weakly.

"Because I need someone to watch the garage." Watanuki answered (again) with surprising patience as he moved around the orangey rust-colored pick-up, tossing a small duffel into the back. Doumeki sat silent, watching the going-ons from the passenger seat. The underside of each piercing eye resembled a day old bruise.

"Sooo? Just lock it up! It'll be _fiiiinnnne!_ I wanna see white Mokona!!"

"If Kurogane hasn't destroyed it yet," he said, half to himself. Unlike Watanuki, the bad-tempered man did not miss when he threw tools.

His were usually heavier than Watanuki's wrenches, too. The odds weren't good for the inverted Mokona, known affectionate(less)ly as pork-bun. Yuuko had given it to Kurogane nearly four years ago, think it a brilliant joke. The only reason the thing was still around was because Fai, Kurogane's partner, was around for it to duck behind when aforementioned grouch was holding something _particularly_ heavy. Nine times out of ten, the large man's throwing arm failed him when his lover was in the way of his target.

Watanuki actually thought it was funny.

He jumped into the pick-up, closing the door with a solid thunk-clap. Leaning out of the open window, braced up by his forearm, he said to Mokona, "Just watch the old place, alright? Next week if you're good, I'll box you up and mail you to Fai. Sound good?"

The fuzzy bot dipped a little in the air, but still seemed to like this compromise.

"You can make a deal with him to stay safe from Kurogane." Watanuki added dryly, starting the truck with a rumble.

Mokona nodded, totally serious for once, and waved as the vehicle pulled out of the lot and went west down Boston St.

* * *

**I was going to wait until at least Sunday to post this, but I couldn't help it xD I don't think anybody minds though...but yay! Surprise! More CLAMP characters! And a road trip! Which wasn't part of the surprise, but whatever : ) I hope you guys like KuroFai, because there _is_ going to be some...Doumeki's got learn about love and homosexuality from _somewhere_...(hahaha)**

**Review? Peaz? Tell me any thoughts you have on Kurogane- I think he's pretty good, but I'm going to write more of him and I want to make sure he's not...weird. I keep thinking of Cid from FFVII, and the way he talks.**

**I think I'm gonna make him smoke xD Just because of that, and a smoking Kurogane is kinda hot. (Not that smoking is appealing. My mom smokes and it stinks and hurts to breathe :P I am not encouraging smoking-- DON'T SMOKE KIDS!! XD)**

**-Oceans**

**(Kuro and Fai live in Wintervale, mentioned before, which has a theme song/inspirational song that I'll tell you later. And I'm not sure if Sakura or Sayoran are going to show up. Sayoran kind of annoyed me, especially the clone : | )**


	8. On the Road

**On The Road**

The countryside surrounding Summerfield was lush. The sky above shone a soothing blue, and tall grasses grew untroubled on either side of the compacted dirt road, fat off the water that poured from the grey city on all sides. The sun burned so brightly that Watanuki's eyes had to adjust.

Douemki's eyes, meanwhile, were on the wider side of narrow as he alternated between staring out of the windshield, and his and Watanuki's window. Watanuki couldn't help but smile at him; the stoic com was beginning to remind him of a puppy.

"Why does it look like this?" He asked. His torso was turned fully to his window.

Watanuki hoped the door was locked. "Like what?"

"Green." Doumeki's mouth was just barely open. "Healthy. Living."

Watanuki redirected his eyes to the road.

"You know how often it rains in the city," he sighed. "About thirty years ago the tunnel system under the streets failed, and the water came out of the storm drains in floods. No one died, but the people figured it was only a matter of time, so the city commissioned a team of engineers from the Nether Countries to fix it so it could never happen again. They worked for a few days, did some simple stuff nobody'd thought of and…" he shrugged.

"Now the water goes into the drains, and is taken through these fields by irrigation. The plants grow because the water is so plentiful, and the soil so good."

Doumeki, who had been watching the other as he spoke, made a noise and went back to his window-watching.

After an hour's worth of unchanging scenery, not even the littlest bit less green, he spoke again.

"Where are we going?"

Watanuki glanced at him, fighting to collect his thoughts from the recesses of his mind. "Hm? Oh, Wintervale."

"Wintervale?"

"Uh huh. Another city..." He began to add up the miles to go in his head. "We should get there about…tomorrow afternoon."

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why are we going?"

"Some people I know have a store there." Watanuki had been holding the wheel with one hand, supporting his chin with the other, resting his elbow on the sill. Now he straightened, rolling his shoulders to stretch them. Something popped.

Doumeki's head turned slightly at the sound.

"I'm taking you to see them." he finished with a sigh, falling back against the seat.

"Why?" Again, only this time the voice had a strange ring to it. Watanuki frowned. Almost like…fear? No, no not that, closer to…anger.

Emotion, now. But he'd been displaying that for awhile-

"_Why?_"

Watanuki winced. Definitely anger. "I'm not going to leave you there or anything," he said, guessing at the com's worry, "I'm just going to have them take a look, see if they can make on sense of you." He mumbled the last part.

A certain tension had been steadily filling the cab of the truck, replacing the oxygen. He hadn't realized until it started to bleed away.

Just as he hadn't recognized the rigidity of Doumeki's shoulders for what it was until it was gone.

***

Dark was coming. The little rusty pick-up was the only thing moving, the only source of sound for miles in all directions, it seemed. Now, in the transition from day to night, the sky was beautiful. Clear and endless, awash with all conceivable shades of color. A thick strip of smoky purple stretched along the western horizon. It was getting darker by the minute.

They'd left the green grasses behind long ago. Now the fields were filled with some strange crop the resembled mature wheat, with similar coloring. The ground beneath the wheels of the truck was hard and cracked, and Watanuki could spy sprinkler systems hidden in among the vegetation.

They were getting closer to the desert.

He could barely keep his eyes open. He must have been driving for eight hours…And in that time they'd only stopped twice.

Doumeki appeared to have fallen asleep a mile back. Perhaps it was time to pull over for the night.

* * *

**The next chapter is really short. I mean, REALLY short. Just a warning : ) **

**I think this chapter is kind of rocky. I wrote this on paper at school (I'm so proud of myself!), and when I typed it and edited it I pretty much completely rewrote it, and I didn't think it through very far when I did. So now I think it sounds...well, rocky. So, 'pologies for that if you notice it. **

**How, this is unrelated, but once a girl on a forum said _"Happiness is yaoi on an ipod," _and guys, it's true! I've been listening to good music and uploading Junjou Romantica episodes onto my ipod and now I'm all happy and bubbily =) And it's snowing really hard, which it hasn't done in a looong time here. **

**And I've been re-reading RosieB's **_**The Once and Future Taiyoukai**_**, which is second only to Resmiranda's TFTHOTM as far as Inuyasha SessKag goes -cuddles-**

**(You guys didn't want to know all about that, sorry xD)**

**-Oceans**


	9. Ligaments

**Ligaments**

Not long after Watanuki's breathing evened out, Doumeki popped open the door and stepped out of the truck, sucking in as deep a breath of air as he could.

He really liked his new senses; he thought his favorite might still be Smell. Feel was a lot of fun, sure, but a person needed permission to Feel. Society imposed no limits on Smell.

At least, that he knew of yet. The sleeping mechanic might introduce him to some if he tried to sample _his_ flavor, like he so badly wanted to. Doumeki thought that eventually Watanuki would let his guard down enough for a quick sniff, and until then he could content himself with air.

Not that air was, in anyway, something to be merely _content_ with. Air was wonderful. He loved all the smells of air he'd so far tested. The air of Summerfield, tainted with smoke and grunge but alive with damp, fresh and cool, that quality of refreshing wet lent to it by the constant rain and fog. And the air of the grassland territory, somehow a tight spring of _vitality_ in his nostrils, sweet and clean. The rough air of the drying land they were parked in now, the air between night and day…Wonderful.

Doumeki stretched his arms, his legs, trying to copy the motions he'd seen Watanuki do after he'd been still for a time. It felt good, the tensing and releasing. With a glance over his shoulder into the cab, the com leaned against the vehicle and pushed up his sleeve.

Days ago, he'd found a place inside his forearm where his skin was usually thin. Through it, he could feel the stretches of cord that acted as ligaments. In the right light- intense, bleached- he could see them. Since he and Watanuki had departed from Summerfield, he had noticed that they had begun to feel…different. Stronger, tighter…softer? Somehow, just…different.

He would not be surprised if he couldn't see them there beneath the skin anymore.

* * *

**Here's where it slows down. Updates, anyway, for two reasons! Er, three!**

**1 - I'm grounded. For something stupid. Dunno how long. (FF is blocked on school PCs)  
2 - Out of prewritten chapters  
3 - Was surprised with In-Car, not entirely sure what days I'm doing it. Get home reeeeaaalll late!**

**Good news though! I know where I want to start the next chapter, so I _can_ get started on that on paper :) And I kind of needed the break so I could work out more of the story anyway. **

**But yes, that's the short chapter. Not a lot's going to happen in the next one either, so far. Arrival, or at least, Wintervale comes into sight. We're almost done with the road trip :D**

**Tell me what you think; feel free to be nit-picky!**

**-Oceans**


	10. While He Was Sleeping

**While He Was Sleeping**

It hadn't taken him long to come to the decision. For hours upon hours of driving the road had been a single, endless stretch. And if, however unlikely it was, he came up a diversion, all he had to do was pull off and wait for Watanuki to wake.

So Doumkei, finished with his musings, trudged around the truck, opened the driver side door, and gently maneuvered the quiescent man into his arms. Then, he went back around (the long way, around the bed), and deposited him- carefully, _carefully!_- into the passenger seat. This was more difficult than it sounds- and indeed, it already does so sound- as the slumbering mechanic had been curled up against the door. And once Doumeki opened the door, his support was taken away and he tumbled, groundward-bound. Then he had to arrange him in a similar position in the opposite seat and…

Doumeki, snapping his wrist to close the door, hovered his hands above Two-and-Ten, pausing. He knew he _could_ drive, he could, but he'd never done it before…

With a final shrug, he bent to turn the key.

***

Watanuki could not place himself when he first came-to. Understandably, as he quite clearly remembered a _parked_ car. Quite clearly, really.

His question came out fuzzy. It sounded something like, "Mummgh?" But Doumeki seemed to understand it all the same.

Without moving his hands, which gripped the wheel, or his eyes, which diligently watched the road, he answered. "We're driving."

Watanuki, blinking owlishly, and failing at resisting the urge to yawn, clarified, "_You're_ driving,"

"Yes."

"Where did you learn to do that?"

He gestured with his head to the glove compartment. "Owner's Manual."

"…Huh."

"Is the road straight all the way to Wintervale?"

"Uh…yeah,"

Hearing that, Doumeki nodded resolutely. He didn't look like he was planning to hand his post over anytime soon.

Watanuki noticed this, and settled back with a groggy sigh, content to just sit and watch. It had been a long since he himself had been past the borders of the city; he could enjoy the scenery as well as anyone.

…Wait a minute. How had he ended up in the passenger seat?

* * *

**Sorry for the quality of this chapter, guys. It's what seems to happen when I ride a kick for too long...next one is better, I think, and Wintervale's image is getting clearer in my head, so it'll be fun to write the descripition for that city :D**

**Ohz yes, officially I'm still grounded, but it seems to be letting up...(the "I've got homework due!" excuse works reeeeaaaaal well at my house too).**

**So...feel free to bash. Cuz I'm kind of thinkin' it deserves it! (Not fishing for reassurance/compliments either, honestly).**

**-Oceans**


	11. Wintervale

**Wintervale**

Watanuki heard the cry of buzzards descend from overhead, and laughed bitterly. When Doumeki gave him a curious stare, he waved a hand vaguely upwards.

"Typical Wintervale welcome."

This only confused the persocom more. "Is Wintervale not a friendly place?"

A curt shake of his head. "Not at all."

A moment, then- "Why is a city called _Winter_vale in the bottom of a canyon?" It was question he'd been mulling over for a while.

"Why is a city like Summerfield called _Summer_field?" Watanuki retorted, turning a wry smile on him; Doumeki found he somewhat liked that expression, and conceded the point.

They had come into the canyon a while ago. The crops had faded away long before that, giving way to dry, cracked desert, tumbleweed and rattlers that could only be heard. Now, high walls of terra cotta colored rock eclipsed the sky but allowed the searing sun. Sweat shone on both of their faces.

He wanted to ask, "Is it much farther?"

Watanuki, his eyes almost closed, drummed his fingers lazily against his knee as he added up the miles and hours. It was harder than it should have been; the heat made him drowsy.

"No…just a few more minutes."

"Can't imagine someone building a city of metal in a place like this." Doumeki muttered after a silence, wiping perspiration from around his mouth.

"They didn't." He barely suppressed a yawn. "Carved it from stone."

"From stone? The stone from the canyon."

"Very same. Keeps the houses cool."

He thought he could see something coming up…"What about electricity?"

Watanuki gave him an exasperated look. "What about it? They have it, if that's what you want to know. The lines are in the ground. The townspeople got tired of repairing to poles every few weeks…"

An odd statement, Doumeki thought, grunting. His attention wavered as he leaned over the wheel, squinting at…something…That, could it be? "Is that it?"

Watanuki had to force his eyes open, almost had to use his fingers. "That?...that, oh, yeah. That's it."

Suddenly the engine popped loudly. _Loudly_, like a scream of a gun. Watanuki jumped and watched the nose of the truck through the windshield. He started chewing his bottom lip.

Doumeki frowned, seeming to have understood the worry behind the mechanic's eyes. "Will it give out on us?"

"Um…"

***

No, Wintervale was _not_ a friendly place. One wondered why the Yonder Countries, whose territory it fell under, had allowed it to remain as long as it had.

The seasons of the year were defined as follows: herb, drink, and war. Herb season was said to come first, starting in when the Mocuzz Valyum plants were mature. Loreds them stripped of their hallucinogenic leaves and sucked on them. The juices that came from the piece muddled one's brain; made them see and feel things, like a dream you had the preasence of mind to influence. The leaves last for a few months, then the left over stalks were brewed to produce a thick, tasteless drink that was unbelievably potent. From the end of herb season, until the brew ran out- this was drink season, and before the Mocuzz plants for the coming year were planted in patches of sunburnt ground, when all the drink was gone and the Loreds were left with nothing to do, war season shook the narrow streets of Wintervale.

The law system of the city was formidable, if exceedingly tolerant; anyone who wasn't a Lored was a lawman. When Loreds committed acts of violence rationalized by drug-rotted minds, the Lawmen stepped in. Forcibly sobered the offender, and confined them to their homes.

Or, typically enough, whatever hole they were sleeping in.

You may find it hard to believe, but killing wasn't common. Though when it _did_ happen, when the people woke to a stinking, bloodied body on the street corner, the guilty one was run out of town. Clear of Tuskau Canyon. The hardened populace could turn a blind eye to the sucking and drinking, but not the killing. The line they drew there was thick, bold, and strict.

But, driving the blood-shedder away did nothing to undo the act itself. Kurogane Kenki knew firsthand- his parents having been cut done by such a criminal when he was young. Born and raised in the bleak, dirty city, if his coloring wasn't proof enough, his temperament certainly did the trick. Brown skin and red eyes, along with a penchant for violence generally identified a Wintervaler. On a Lored, those who were drinkers and druggies by occupation, those red eyes were dull as dried gore, more mud than proud crimson.

***

The walls were painted yellow. There were two bedrooms, one bathroom, a kitchen, and a main room. The windows were large for a Wintervale home (bigger the window, more expensive to replace when a brick comes through it), and sunlight poured in from all sides. There were no lamps, or lights; there wasn't really much need for them.

A single fan was set up on the counter in the kitchen, blowing cool air steadily, long ribbons of white paper fluttering and flapping wildly in the direction of the door. A bulkily, brown radio that looked to weigh at least forty pounds was next it.

_"…lker street. Again, Bolker street, one down, orange truck…"_

* * *

**Wee, chapter 11! Hope the describition is believable. There isn't much I can do about it if it isn't; it's kind of stuck in my head now. And is that a cliffhanger? Whoops~! Not grounded anymore, but I don't think that means that updates are going to come like they were before.**

**-Oceans**

**PS; theme song for Wintervale is _Eyes Down_ by the Eels. Listen to it here:  
http**(colon)(backslash)(backslash)**www**(period)**youtube**(period)**com**(backslash)**watch?v**(equals)**vkR**(underscore)**8aOjKN8**

**I personally like the recorded verison better, but -shrugs- you take what you can get.**


	12. Theories

**Theories**

"…he deadline."

She scoffed. "There's plenty of time. Things are moving along splendidly, I think."

"Doesn't seem to be enough feeling."

A grin. Hair tossed back. "You think so?"

"Hm…do I?"

"Darling, it's _me_."

"…That's true…"

***

The first thing Watanuki was sure of when he came to, was that his head had had a building dropped on it. Or something. The second thing was that he was significantly pissed at Doumeki, though he hadn't a _clue_ why. Hopefully that would clear up in time…

A cool hand on his forehead interrupting his thinking.

He cracked his eyes. Ouch, light…

"...Who is it?"

"Fai. Do you remember anything?"

He struggled for a bit, opened his eyes wider. "You mean about why my head is killing me?"

He heard a bounce and felt a light dip in the mattress next to his head, which most likely meant…"Yup! You got a big ol' bump in your head, Kimi-kimi!"

White Mokona. _Oh joy._

Watanuki scrunched up his face in distaste. That high- pitched voice was only going to make the pain worse. "Fai?" He groaned, raising a hand to cautiously feel out the damage.

The man whose form he could only dimly make out chuckled. "One of our charming locals saw fit to introduce you to a friend of his."

A…friend?

"Which means what?" His tone had taken an edge of pleading to it. Mindgames with Fai gave him bad enough headaches when he didn't _already have one_.

"One Pole, Iron." Fai laughed.

A shadow appeared in the doorway, and Watanuki dared to hope. "Kurogane?"

"You got clocked in the head, kid, some Lored with a length of pipe. Got here about six hours ago, was awake and delirious for the first two of them." The big man made a vague gesture towards where Watanuki remembered the street was, stepping further into the room. "Doctor came and gave you a draft, and it put you out. Now you're caught up."

Fai gave an affirmative nod and, punching an aspirin free of its plastic/foil wrap, added, "Your friend won't speak to us, but he has been worried. That much is discernible." He held out the pill and a glass off the nightstand.

"He's going to drink us a new draught." Kurogane growled. "By the way, what's the big idea? Call me rambling some crazy shit about a robot coming to life, drive all the way out here and you bring me your boyfriend? Now I know-"

Watanuki choked on the water going down his throat. Fai beat his back as he coughed violently, his eyes tearing up. "W-what? Boyfriend? No _way_-"

"-that you're not a junior mechanic, and you generally know what you're dealing with, but really man, a persocom turning into a _human?_ That just ain't happening, Summer-"

"Stop, stop stop!" Watanuki cupped his neck where it hurt. "S'not my boyfriend-"

"You already said that."

"_He's_ the _persocom_. His name is…well, Mokona named him…Doumeki. Shizuka."

Kurogane blinked. "Eh? He's the persocom."

Watanuki nodded. He rubbed his eye with one hand, beginning to explain. "Everything started about a week ago. A man named Reed came and said that he'd called Yuuko about a busted persocom- Doumeki- and she'd promised to look at it. She wasn't there, so I checked it out for him, but I had to do a manual diagnostics because the computer…wasn't working. And when I turned around a few hours later, he was gone." Watanuki shrugged. "The next morning the persocom- Doumeki- was…up and running, moving around in the garage. Mokona woke me up. I talked to him and…well, he didn't remember anything. Data-deletion…or…amnesia." Here Kurogane snorted. "He didn't even remember he was a robot…"

Watanuki went on to detail the strange that happened each day after that, the developing senses and characteristics, the _personality_ that Doumeki seemed to be growing…

Funny. He'd used the word personality before to himself, but it was only as he relayed his theories and the recent happenings to the others that it hit him exactly how _strange_ all this was…really, a robot turning into a person? In _this _world? Now? Maybe magic was prominent in other Countries, but here…?

Watanuki shook his head gently, and brought himself back to the conversation at hand.

Fai was speaking. "…think of anything. I mean, I've _heard_ of stuff like that before, but it was all just speculation. There are so many factors associated with gifting life to inanimate objects." The northerner's hands moved through the air as if trying to shape a picture, but they fell back to his lap. "No one has the kind of power it takes to do something like that."

"So it can't be from your end of things."

"Can't? Well, that's a strong word…"

"Wait a second, you're all talking about magic? But the Remarkin Inquisition…"

Fai smirked at him humorlessly. "That? That pathetic attempt to rid the Nether Countries of magic? All _it_ did was drive the spellworkers into hiding."

Kurogane, having pulled another chair from somewhere, grunted his agreement. "It didn't even touch the Higher Plains."

Watanuki sat up a little straighter. "You said no practitioner has the power to do something like that, well, what if it was something from the Higher Plains? A spirit or something?"

Fai chewed his lip, "Hm…possible. I mean, it probably _is_ magic, but…"

Watanuki blinked, suddenly remembering to ask, "Where is Doumeki anyway?"

"Asleep on the kitchen table." Kurogane answered. He rose up from his seat with a groan and turned to go, but stopped in the doorway. He looked back over his shoulder. "I haven't even looked at this thing yet. For all we know it could be another of Yuuko's pet projects. We can theorize more tomorrow night."

White Mokona fluttered away after him. Fai sat for a moment before standing himself. He clapped Watanuki companionably on the shoulder.

"We'll work on it. In the meantime, remember that this isn't Summerfield, Kimihiro. You have to be careful when you go outside."

He smiled, and left.

* * *

**Sorry for the delay on this update! Also, the chapter is unedited because I wanted to post as soon as I was finished. If you see anything that doesn't quite sit right, please point it out. It will probably take me about four run-throughs to catch everything that needs to be fixed!**

**-Oceans**

**Edit no.1 -- Things like the Higher Plains, and the Remarkin Inquisition will be explained later! (And I fixed a few things that were pointed out.)**


	13. And Discussions

**And Discussions**

Watanuki sat at the kitchen table the next morning with a towel covering his wet hair. He met Doumeki before Kurogane took the persocom out to the workshop, and managed to draw a sketchy account of the attack from the suddenly lip-locked man.

_"…came from behind." _He had said. _"He told me you were already down, and that if I didn't hurry and get out of the truck, you'd die."_

He told Watanuki that he had gone around the corner to look for 'something called a Lawmen' after they managed to push the broken down automobile into an ally. From there, the mechanic was able to raise a hazy memory of a…or, what had _looked_ like a small mountain of rags against a building on the sidewalk. It had been so long since he'd come Wintervale with Yuuko, he'd forgotten how to move about the streets safely…

As he retold the story and his inferences to Fai, he realized why Doumeki all but refused to talk to anyone.

He was _angry._

Of course…now it was completely obvious. The way he moved so stiffly, how absurdly straight he held his spine when posture had never been something he worried about before…the line of his mouth…

Watanuki told this to Fai too.

The taller man was flipping eggs in a pan. The radio buzzed a quiet, but constant stream of static at the end of the counter. It wasn't hot enough yet to run the fan.

"Mm…sounds about right."

Watanuki scrunched up his face. "It does? But what is there for him to be angry at?"

"Well, think about it." He replied. "You're the only person he really knows, right? And he failed to protect you. Sounds like something to be angry about to me."

"But it wasn't his fault."

Fai cast a half teasing, half somber look over his shoulder. "Has _that_ ever stopped any of us?"

Watanuki was still staring at his back when Kurogane noisily came through the front door. "Kid!"

"Here." He mumbled, still busy thinking.

The big man changed course. "I'm not touching this one _anymore_- Fai's taking a shot at it-"

"I am?"

"- because there is no fucking way that is something someone made with bolts and tools. I would _almost_ say that even _Yuuko_ couldn't have anything to do with it."

Fai lifted his lover's chin with the spatula in his hand, a piece of egg dangling from it. "A bet you make against Ms. Yuuko is a bet you've lost from the start, love." He teased.

Kurogane growled, pushing the utensil away. "You think I don't know that? But that stupid thing…!"

"So you know what I mean now," Watanuki ruffled his hair under the towel. "Did you even get under the polymer?"

"Tried to." He shot back. "Poked him once with a scalpel and blood came out. I ain't a doctor, I ain't going there."

Just then Doumeki himself appeared from the front hall. There were two white medical suction cups on his temples, and a collar around his neck that seemed to hold needles over his pulse points.

"Can I come in now?"

"Shizuka, do you know what all this confusion is for?" Fai dumped the eggs onto a plate.

The persocom fixed a heavy stare on his back. He pulled out a chair and sat at the end of the table.

"…Kind of." He said. "I know that I'm not supposed to be able to do all the things I can."

"Do you know why?"

"You never told him?" Kurogane's accusatory tone brought a blush to Watanuki's face.

Doumeki glanced once at everyone in the room before focusing on the Northerner again, blinking. "No?"

Fai smiled. "It's because you're human."

Watanuki watched a puzzled scowl settle over the other's features.

"And you're not supposed to be."

"…I'm not. Then why am I?"

"That's the curiosity!" Fai suddenly straightened, stabbing a finger in his direction. "That's what's got all of us standing on our heads! You see, because when you first came to Kimihiro-" Here he jabbed the finger toward the one in question. "-you were a persocom. An incredibly humanlike robot, but a robot all the same, built from wire and metal. Now though, you're human. Living, breathing _human._"

The blonde man leaned down, eagerly resting his elbows on the table so his stare was level with Doumeki's. "The only thing that could accomplish this is_ magic_!"

He tilted his head. "Do you know what magic is, Shizuka?"

Doumeki held his gaze. "The art of producing a desired effect or result through the use of incantation or various other techniques that presumably assure human control of supernatural agencies or the forces of nature."

Watanuki blinked. Kurogane coughed and Fai's smile diminished somewhat. "I see you've been reading a dictionary," He remarked dryly.

"I didn't know we _had_ a dictionary…" Watanuki said, thinking out loud.

The not-persocom shrugged. "It was in the desk. But…there were other books…One had a character who could clap his hands and make things appear."

Fai's smile came back. "Like that. Er, well, kind of like that. Part of the general idea."

"The television said there is no magic anymore."

Kurogane laughed at the Northerner's crestfallen face. "Time for the history lesson. The propaganda got to the kid."

Watanuki grabbed Doumeki's wrist for his attention, releasing it just as quickly when golden eyes swiveled to land on him. "That's a lie that the Nether Countries Central Council pushes. About fifty years ago, before the revolution, the Czar in power went…on a crazy offensive mission against all the spellworkers in the territory. Because one of his children had been assassinated by a rogue magician.

"He paid for the service of a team of Hunters, mercenaries that specialize in dangerous targets from a country far to the west. There were…seven of them, I think. They opened a school in the capital city, and trained drafted young people. At the end of the century, almost eleven hundred spellworkers had been killed, and the rest had been either driven into hiding or out of the country."

Kurogane, having moved to stand behind Fai, smirked and bumped the back of the blonde man's chair with his knee. "That's why he looks so weird."

"I think I resent that."

Watanuki ignored them. "Most people as far north as where Fai came from look more like Kurogane." He explained. "Dark skin, dark hair. Fai's ancestors were almost certainly refugees."

Doumeki's eyes narrowed. He caught the look that passed between the Wintervalers, and wondered what part of Watanuki's statement caused the spark of grim humor in their shared glance.

"The whole thing was led by a man named Seishiro Sakurazuka. Even after the Czar passed away, he kept it running until he himself died. People call the time period now the Remarkin Inquisition, after Czar Luis Remark III. There was a revolution not long after that, which is where the Central Council came from, but the prejudice had been instilled in the population by then. The Council outlawed magic, and will tell anyone who listens that it's all gone now."

"Even if that's not exactly true." Fai gave Doumeki catty grin, full of teeth.

"Anyway," Watanuki pushed the towel on his head- forgot about that- down to his shoulders. "The point of the whole lecture is that, even though the TV says there is no magic, there is. Fai is from the northernmost tip of the Yonder Countries, but he's basically on the border now, and he practices magic."

"Knows _how_ to, anyway. I'm pretty much retired."

Doumeki looked at him as if _he_ were the robot that had come to life. "Really? Real magic?"

"Mmm~hm."

The phone rang.

* * *

**Hi everybody! I'm proud of myself because I pretty much finished this chapter in one sitting! And there are only a few kinks to work out before what's left of the story is planned :D**

**There is one random thing I would like to ask, and that is, are there any songs that remind you of Doumeki and Watanuki when you listen to them? And if there are, what are they? Two for me are Guardian Angel by Red Jumpsuit Apparatus (which is a really common one), and Bug in A Web by CALLmeKAT. The second one, I have no idea why, but it does : )**

**-Oceans**

**(Longest chapter I've written since chp. 1! And no breaks. Yay~!)**

**Something I forgot to include when I first posted-- I have a friend named Luis! It's pronounced _lou-eeez,_ versus, ya know, Louis/Lewis. He's cool though! So any witches you know are safe from _him_ at least ;-)**


	14. Headaches

**Headaches**

The call was from Yuuko, resurfaced at least.

"Watanuki dear, what are you doing in Wintervale? _I'm_ the one on vacation, honey."

Watanuki sagged as her voice filled his ear and, just like that, his head throbbed. It was really that easy for her. Rubbing his eye despairingly, he said, "Yuuko, something really strange happened at the shop, and I wanted Kurogane to take a look-"

"I'm sure it isn't all that bad." She cut him off flippantly. "Suffer through it. In the meantime, _who's watching the shop?"_

"...Mokona," he admitted. "It's locked down. But really Yuuko, listen to this-"

"Naaaahaha! I'll hear about it when you get back. I'm having small king fish sandwiches for lunch tomorrow~!."

"You are?" He asked weakly.

"Yup! And you're cooking it!"

"_What?!_" Watanuki jumped. "You can't think I'm going to drive- !" But the dial tone droned away, and he slammed the phone into the base.

Fai poked his head into the kitchen. "Something wrong?"

Watanuki didn't look up from grinding his forehead into the wall beside the phone.

"Besides the normal problems that come with a phone call from Yuuko, I mean."

"Shut. Up."

The magician grinned cheerily.

The mechanic sighed, pulling back from the wall to push stiff fingers through his hair. "The truck?"

Fai shrugged, still leaning into the other side of the doorway. "We've got it. Kuro-pun was planning to fix it this afternoon."

"Tell him not to bother." Watanuki said, suddenly sounding exhausted. "I'll do it, I need the distraction anyway."

"She wants you back home?"

"We're leaving in the morning."

***

A pain that Doumeki didn't recognize woke up him that night.

Moonlight dripped through the blinds and stripped the floor, his legs. From his place on the ground, without lifting his head he could just barely make out Watanuki's blanketed form.

Doumeki listened to the soft whooshes of the boy's exhalations and thought about all the aches he'd become acquainted with over the past week; there had been quite a few. The uncomfortable tingle when he was first able to Smell, the slow, searing discomfort of the car door when he'd touched the heated metal not too long ago. The sting when they cleared the clouds that seemed permanently fixed over Summerfield and he'd looked up into the sun. That vague scratch in his throat he now knew was thirst.

Then there were other pains that fell into another, nameless category. Those he wasn't sure he quite liked. The tingle, the sting, the scratch…they had all been pleasant enough, in a strange, indescribable way, but the mysterious second category wasn't like that.

Under that column in his head one could find the sensation of his heart trying to beat out of his chest, the feeling of something large but elusive clogging his throat that refused to be swallowed down. Things he'd felt when he was angry. Or upset, or scared.

He was mildly pleased to note that this new ache belonged to the first category. It was a strange burning, a dull pain, like bruise but sharper just beneath his ribs…-

However. First category or not, it was keeping him awake. He _liked_ sleep, even though it took hours from his days. Now he was aware of the scratch- _thirst._- and the need to sate it.

Now that he finally knew how to, anyway. He'd do his best to ignore the new ache, and maybe Watanuki would help him discover what it meant later.

---

Kurogane was sprawled over the couch on his belly, staring contemplatively at the corner and giving himself a headache. He was only vaguely aware of Fai, sitting on the floor and reading some dusty magic manual he'd dug up from somewhere. Kurogane blinked, feeling his eyes water from the momentary relief, and groaned softly, irritable.

"I hate riddles."

Fai 'hmmed', a page cracking as he flipped.

"Why does everything have to be so goddamn intricate." He grouched.

The magician surveyed him from the corner of one eye, smiling a little half smile and dropping a soft, lilting chuckle of a variety that was easier to feel than to hear.

"So Kuro-puu doesn't get out of practice of solving them," He supplied, even though they both knew it hadn't been a question.

Kurogane scowled at him before returning to his corner-scrutinizing.

"I wonder if it really was something from the Higher Plains." It was mumbled, but Fai still heard it. "We weren't much help to them."

Kurogane didn't like letting problems get away from him unsolved. Especially when it was one brought to him by a friend.

Fai pushed a marker between the pages and set the heavy tome aside, crawling around the end of the couch to sit on his knees. He pushed his forehead against Kurogane's and grinned when he felt the dark brow lift because of raised eyebrows. His mouth was turned up in an expression of calm happiness as Fai eased closer, making sure to turn his head so no noses bumped, and landed a chaste kiss on the other man's lips.

Kurogane rolled his eyes, but the customary scowl had lightened a bit. Not bothering with complete sentences, he asked in a quiet rumble, "What for?"

Fai made a rolling, purring sound that involved his tongue and chest, and half-opened his blue eyes. The color was particularly bright just then, like the waters of a tropical shore.

"I don't want you to get a headache." He said simply, in a slippery voice.

Kurogane grunted. _Is that so_, he meant.

"Because you'll only whine until it goes away," He finished with a slow cheshire grin, and stuck his tongue out. Kurogane reacted beautifully.

He grasped the back of Fai's head and pulled at the same time he ducked forward. The result was a bruising, forceful kiss that absolutely shamed the first. It teased a sigh from Fai's throat as he looped pale arms around his lover's neck and arched into the increasingly energetic touch.

Both of them heard movement in the hall, but neither attachd any significance to it until Fai, feeling the weight of eyes upon them, and broke the contact to greet Doumeki with a painful smile.

Kurogane, when he saw why Fai had pulled away, glared in a moody way that truly was not _quite_ pouting.

Doumeki somehow pulled off curious and disinterested at once. "What is that?" He asked.

Fai blinked. "The kiss?

"If I tell you, do you promise to return to bed quickly?"

Doumeki nodded.

Acutely aware of the lack of distance between his face and Kurogane's, Fai answered, "Touching lips. Humans do for it many different reasons."

"What kind of reasons?"

"Does it matter?" _Patience is a virtue._ Kurogane was staring at the corner again.

Doumeki shrugged in a way that suggested _'I don't know,' _more than apathy.

"You do it with people you care for romantically."

A small crease appeared between his eyes. "Characterized by a preoccupation with love or by the idealizing of love or one's beloved…" This Doumeki mumbled to himself in a considering tone.

"You're _still_ at that dictionary, good for you." Fai remarked with forced cheerfulness. The heat coming off of the man in his arms was awfully distracting, and the fingers on the back of his neck flexing did not help matters. "Watanuki said you didn't start doing that until you got here."

Doumeki shrugged again- where had he gotten that habit?- and crossed the living room, disappearing casually into the kitchen. There was the sound of cupboards opening and closing, of the sink running, and he vanished back into the dark hallway with a cup of water.

Moments after the door closed, Kurogane's arms tugged.

"Strange kid," Fai mused, intent on resuming their previous activity.

Kurogane growled his accession, and there was no more talking after that.

* * *

**Hey, this chapter's long too! That was totally unintended XD I'm kinda loopy right now so I won't talk much, but I don't really like this chapter, even if I did get to write KuroFai smut (Yes I call a kiss smut- that one at least, it refused to be written and took forever). Ah well, the boys are going home, and Doumeki now knows what kisses are (if he didn't before, hmm). Now we just need to figure out where the hell he got the dictionary.**

**...(I forgot everything I wanted to say.)**

**Oh, definitions courtesy of dictionaryDOTcom. ***'s equal a passage of time, whereas ---'s equal a change of scene.**

**-Oceans**

**(Fixed all of my italics. They got eaten somehow. And changed the chapter title, as of July 9th.)**


	15. Crash

**Crash**

Watanuki and Doumeki left the next morning for Summerfield.

Fai told them he planned to ask around, have words with old contacts. "It's possible that the community has broken new ground since I left. I'll tell you if I find anything noteworthy."

Kurogane didn't bother to make a similar promise, as the group had unanimously decided that there was very little he and Watanuki could do anymore. They were going to have to dig through magic and spirits and gods for their answers, and how could two mechanics possibly be of any help with that?

As they came out of Tuskau Canyon Watanuki realized that Doumeki hadn't gained a new sense- bodily function- since they'd arrived at Kurogane and Fai's. He was overdue for one…

But what if another change wouldn't come? What if the process- persocom to human, persocom to almost-human- was slowing down. Going to…stop.

Reverse, even?

For some reason, the thought of that scared Watanuki.

And how long would Doumeki run, anyway? What was he even running _on?_ What was he drawing energy from? Not for a battery, the charge Watanuki suspected had woken him would have long ago worn away. He didn't eat…but he drank…

Confusing. Irritating. Pointless.

Watanuki shook his head forcefully, catching Doumeki's attention. He ignored his stare until the not-persocom looked away.

They had so many questions compared to so few answers.

Watanuki drove through the night in a futile attempt to meet Yuuko's impossible deadline. Minutes before sunrise Doumeki demanded that he pull over and swap with him. By then he was so tired he had to squint to see the road, and it was a good thing there weren't any turns to make, because he doubted he had the brain capacity to remember them. It didn't occur to him to protest.

As it was, he didn't even get out of the cab. He simply scooted a few inches over and fell onto his side, leaving it up to Doumeki to push him completely out of the way.

Pulling the door shut with a sharp noise, Doumeki winced at the sensation in his abdomen that had become painful. It was probably time to mention it to Watanuki…

…but, looking down at him, curled up on the long seat with his hand near his face, he decided it wasn't so important. It could wait a little longer.

A mistake, as it turned out. Because if he had told Watanuki, then maybe the truck wouldn't have sped off the road when Doumeki passed out from hunger.

* * *

**Uuuuuhhhh....how long has it been since I've updated? Honestly don't think it was that long ago, but it feels like forever. Meeeeh.**

**Cliffhanger! Eee, sorry xD New Holic character introduced next chapter! Not a main one : )**

**Short chapter. A to B kind of thing, ya'know?**

**-Oceans**

**(Unedited.)**


	16. Reassurance

**Reassurance**

Watanuki was, quite decidedly, sick of waking up in strange places.

Though he realized pretty quickly where he was- the fields and the road, how could he not?- he still wanted to know…

What on earth happened?

His body ached all over. And Doumeki, flat on his back and comatose, was beside him. A bloody bandage covered his head and one eye

But wait- since when did bandages have frills?

Or lacework on the edges, for that matter.

He made an educated guess.

"Ame-warashi, where are you?"

A few minutes later, she came into existence a few feet from him.

Sitting on nothing but air, he saw she hadn't changed; but spirits normally didn't. Ame-warashi retained the appearance of a preteen, almost teenage girl with poisonous blue hair, an umbrella and an affinity for Lolita clothing. Same as four years ago when, Yuuko had introduced her as a sometime-drinking buddy.

Fifteen year old Watanuki had been somewhat scandalized to learn that the respectable powers sometimes drank themselves stupid with his boss and played practical jokes on him. It had taken him days to wash the dye off his hands after that first introduction.

With these memories freshly dredged up and forefront in his mind, Watanuki coolly received the rain spirit. Then again, maybe not.

Her left eyebrow cocked condescendingly.

"Way to thank me, Watanuki." She said in a bored voice that failed to disguise her agitation, thumping her umbrella on her shoulder.

"Thank you for what? For injuring my friend?"

She jumped, glaring. "No, you idiot! For saving you!"

It took a few seconds for the meaning of those words to process. Sav-? "From _what_?! I was asleep, the last thing I knew-"

She jabbed the tip of her umbrella in Doumeki's direction.

"You're so stupid, why did Yuuko ever make you her apprentice? You made him drive when he was so weak from hunger that he collapsed! You crashed!!"

The umbrella was swung wide, Watanuki's eyes following it to where the end of the poor, abused pick-up jutted from an irrigation ditch. He choked.

"B-b-but-"

"Stupid!" She repeated, looking down at him, somewhat smug. "Couldn't you tell?"

"He didn't s-say…Damnitt. Are we both alright? I think I am, but he's…"

Her eyes narrowed as she focused on him, and she looked at the prone figure on the ground. Donning a mildly suspicious quirk to her mouth, she stepped gracefully down from her invisible perch and came to stand next Watanuki where he leaned over Doumeki.

Watanuki wasn't a doctor, and he was intensely aware of that fact as he gingerly peeled away Ame-warashi's handkerchief. Horror stories of innocent bumps on the head and burst blood vessels and sudden deaths floated around in his head, along with one confused thought that was drowned out by the rest of them- was Doumeki even vulnerable to those kinds of threats?

If hunger could take him down…

Finally the bandage moved enough that he could see: a lengthy, but shallow gash over one eyebrow. It was bleeding a lot, but that was only to be expected from a head wound…Watanuki heaved a sigh of relief.

"I was worried because the bandage covered his eye too…" he joked weakly, falling back onto his heels.

Now Ame-warashi's eyebrow was forming an angle similar to the one her mouth had cut. But Watanuki didn't notice, and she didn't draw attention to it. Instead, she shrugged flippantly and paced lazily around them both, resting her umbrella against her neck. "Hrmph."

"It may have been the steering wheel," He said, more to himself than anyone. He ran a hand through his hair, looking up. "How long ago did this happen…?"

Ame-warashi blinked at him, considered, and shrugged again. "Three hours. Two. Give or take."

"Shouldn't he be waking up by now…?"

"It's still six miles to Summerfield." She remarked, pacing, pacing.

"Six…Well, could be worse, I guess. About…two hours walking. That's not too bad."

"Provided he's not concussed."

"..."

***

Roughly an hour later, Doumeki came awake. Ame-warashi traded sparse greetings with him before making an odd comment about his scent which puzzled Watanuki to no end, and which Doumeki seemed to ignore. Then she left them to make their way home.

By that time, the sun was dipping down beneath the horizon and the sky and landscape all around was dyed a shade of orange so thick and deep that the green of the fields was barely detectable. Once Watanuki assured himself as best has he could that Doumeki did not if fact have a concussion, they started off.

For almost a mile, he had Doumeki described every pain and foreign sensation he'd felt since they had first left for Wintervale. Then the mechanic launched into an explanation of hunger, nutrition, and the process of chewing and swallowing.

"So now I can eat food?" Doumkei asked.

Watanuki looked over at him. "Does that mean you wanted to?"

"I was curious. You..._humans_ do it all the time."

Watanuki abruptly stopped walking, shocked at the venom that coated the emphasis.

Why had Doumeki said it like _that?_

He asked.

The not-persocom, who had been a few steps ahead of him on the road, slowed and shot him a look over his shoulder. He scowled, staring forward again where they could pretend Summerfield's skyscrapers were visible.

Then he slouched, a bit hopelessly, and he began to recite, as if they were the lyrics of his own funeral dirge, definitions.

"A bipedal primate mammal of the genus Homo. Any living or extinct member of the family Hominidae. A member of the species Homo sapiens.

"Consisting of people.

"A _person._"

Doumeki's posture had shifted into something angry, primal, and vaguely threatening while he spoke, his tone hardening with each word.

Watanuki swallowed, turning his rounded eyes down and away. The heat in the look Doumeki attempted to catch him with was unbearable.

"Where…did you get that dictionary, Doumeki?" He asked as firm a tone has he could muster.

For a moment, neither of them moved. When Watanuki peeked up, he saw that Doumeki's body was tense, as if he were restraining himself.

Why? Where had all this come from? What-

"Doumeki-"

"Forget it." He snarled.

And then, though he had begun to push forward again, Watanuki didn't budge. He watched Doumeki's back with wide eyes, wondering.

What could he say?

How could he fix this?

"…I have my own definition." He ventured, almost whimsically.

The comment had the desired effect. Doumeki stopped.

Watanuki tried to imagine what Yuuko would say in this situation. He had no idea what he was doing. He was winging it, hoping, maybe a little bit of her luck would spread to him if he just said the_ right thing_-

"A heartbeat."

Doumeki looked at him, but Watanuki thought he could better guess at the thoughts of the lightbulb in his bedroom than at Doumeki's right now.

He gave him a coy smile- it was in the other man's imagination if it was a little shaky. "A human is a heartbeat that beats for someone else." He raised his chin haughtily, seemingly inviting debate. "Do _you_ have a heartbeat?"

Doumeki's head moved slowly to the side though his eyes didn't move from Watanuki's. He walked back to him in long, fluid steps.

Watanuki ball his fists at his sides and hoped it went unnoticed.

His friend- the persocom, the human- spoke in a quiet voice that made the silence around them blaringly loud.

"Do I?"

Licking his lips, Watanuki pressed a sweaty palm against Doumeki's chest where the thumping would be found…if it was there at all.

He didn't know; _did_ Doumeki have a heartbeat? Yet? What if he didn't- what would Watanuki say next? He doubted he'd get a second chance to correct whatever thoughts had been poisoning his friend's mind for who knew how many days. He was so anxious, for a long minute the only hammering beat he felt was his own. Forcing deep breaths on himself, begging his lungs to expand and take air, for the flow of his blood to slow, he _felt…_

Thump.

Thump.

Thump.

That was…

Watanuki couldn't keep his relief from showing on his face. Glowing, he looked up into golden eyes that didn't seem quite so frightening now that he had this.

"You have a heartbeat." He told him. He didn't need Yuuko anymore, the smirks and simpers were gone.

Doumeki didn't respond; he didn't blink, or speak. The only move he made was the gentle swell and fall of his chest with his breath.

So Watanuki took his hand in his own, and pressed it over the spot where he'd felt that throb against his palm. He waited to be sure, fantasizing that he could still sense it despite larger hand beneath his.

"Do you feel it?"

Doumeki, his eyes hooded and, Watanuki fancied, softer, nodded his accent.

A small, vulnerable smile spread over his mouth. "Tell me who it's beating for."

Doumeki only looked at him.

* * *

***GASP* DONE! I've been working on this chapter for hours...*cries* I got so caught up! It was fun, but now my back hurts. So is this too much drama? An unexpected dash of (hopefully mild) angst? I don't like angst. I hope this isn't angst...**

**Yeah, they'll get the truck later. They can't litter in those pretty fields *grumblegrouch* And the new xxxHOLiC character is Ame-warashi, as you can see : ) I went back to read some of the chapters she was in, and it surprised me how immature she was compared to how I remembered her, which was much more mellow. Weird.**

**Review? Maybe? I hope the longer-than-usual length somewhat makes up for the fact that I'm at least one day late from what I told everybody. I worked on an original story and started reading one of Silvershine's fanfictions, and got distracted...hehehe....heh....**

**-Oceans**

**(Weeks Later: Only just fixed my italics. Loser.)**


	17. Our Little Secret

**Our Little Secret**

"I take it that look on your face means you've seen that I'm right." She said smugly.

A fierce scowl grew on the other's face. "Nothing's happened ­yet! And there's not much time left, dear friend."

"There's enough, don't you worry. We know _very _well what we're doing."

"'We'?! That's cheating!!"

"Baah! By what rule?"

"Well, w-we-"

"We never bothered to lay any down, dear."

"…shut up."

***

They made the remainder of the walk in silence, managing to come into the city limits- Watanuki guessed- little past midnight. The night was unusually clear, and the damp on the air was, rather than the normal choking humidity, refreshing. Watanuki was enjoying deep lungfuls of this rare treat when Doumeki's hand, heavy on his shoulder, drew his attention. His first glimpse of the taller man's face worried him- was that issue from the road not resolved?- but when he opened his mouth to speak his doubts, a second hand came up and trapped the words inside.

Doumeki, seeming to read his mind, shook his head minutely.

"You asked where I got the…the dictionary…" He winced, looking off down Bricktile St. for, Watanuki somehow suspected, an excuse to evade his eyes. "No one gave it to me, it was…I found it on the counter beneath the window when you were packing for the drive, before we left. It hadn't been there before, I knew, it just…appeared between one night and the next."

Watanuki's brow furrowed. He spoke through Doumeki's hand. "But…? You said it was in the desk-"

The other man suddenly started, and dug through his pocket with his free hand- not, the puzzled mechanic noticed, the one pressed over his mouth. The appendage resurfaced after a moment, pinching a folded scrap of paper between two long fingers. Doumeki held it high, between both of their faces, and nodded at it.

"This was between the covers."

The note said in curling, girlish letters:

_Our little secret._

* * *

**A shorty, sorry guys : ) We reach the Garage next chapter, and- I'm thinking, night now- there'll be a little 104 fluff.**

**In the meantime, if you would allow me to babble about something completely unrelated...*clears throat* Maybe a month or so ago I came across a documentary called _FLOW: for love of water_, about the growing scarcity of clean water and whether or not it's ethically alright to sell it. It's very interesting and inspiring, and I would like to point you, now, in two different directions:**

**The first is a website were you can add your name to a petition for the UN to add a 31st article to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights: the Right to Water. The website is http(colon backslash backslash)article31(dot)org.**

**The _second_ place is the actual documentary _FLOW _in the form of a video hosted by Google. That link would require so much butchering that it would be impossible to follow, so I humbly request that you note in your review as to whether or not you're interested in it. **

**And I _promise_ that was not a scam for more reviews! Messaging/emailing me for it is okay too.**

**So, now I'm done, and thanks for reading! :D**

**-Oceans**

**(Oh yeah, all my italics got eaten when I published to chap.16, so you know. As of right now, (_May 19th, 9:40 PM EST_) I haven't fixed it.)**


	18. Homecoming

**Homecoming **

Yuuko did not seem surprised when Watanuki introduced Doumeki as 'the persocom that isn't a persocom anymore.' She merely welcomed him with a catty smile and a long hmmmmm sound, bleeding an aura of Wise Woman that made Watanuki itch to bury his finger down his throat. "So wonderful to meet you, Doumeki," She purred, shaking his hand. Her employee noted quizzically how her eyes flashed as she said his name.

Mokona greeted them with its usual enthusiasm, flying like a furry missile for Watanuki's head. It was as he was struggling with the little bot that Yuuko's fan _crrrracked!_ and the mechanic flinched. That sound always meant trouble.

"Watanuki!" She stabbed the end of the fan into the soft skin under his chin and forced his eyes up.

Oh dear.

"You're _late._"

"And we're hungry!" Blurted the fuzzy in his squeaky tones.

He jerked away from the lacquered point, half-sneering. "You knew that that deadline was impossible to meet, even if we had left right after you called! And besides," he folded his arms against his chest, angling sideways. "We had…car trouble."

She beat a rhythm into her palm. "Yes, I noticed you didn't have Pumpkin with you." Yuuko ignored Watanuki's groan and turned a bright smile on Doumeki. "Perhaps you care to explain, dear?"

He blinked dourly. "It crashed into an irrigation ditch outside of the city."

"Mm. And how did this happen?"

"I was driving, and I passed out."

She made a 'go on' motion."

Watanuki's face pink, he opened his mouth to voice a, no doubt, loud complaint, when Doumeki's stomach fairly _roared_ with hunger. Yuuko broke the stunned silence that followed with a harsh laugh, like a cawing bird, and her assistant scratched his head bashfully. Doumeki stared down at his stomach quizzically, and asked, "Is that normal?"

Watanuki blushed. "Yes, that is normal."

***

Doumeki tapped a fork against his cleaned plate, watching quietly as Yuuko and black Mokona laughed at Watanuki's popping blood vessels.

He was somewhat puzzled, but mostly interested. He had come to thing of Watanuki as generally a quiet person, but with the introduction of his eccentric employer came a whole _new_ side of young man. This part of Watanuki was energetic and spastic, and embodied the shadows of fierce temper Doumeki had caught glimpses of.

When he asked for the young man to pass the herb rice, he snapped at him to get it himself.

Doumeki smiled.

***

"You seem to be taking this whole thing with Doumeki in your stride," Watanuki muttered darkly. His hands work a sponge in swirling strokes over their dirty dinner plates.

Yuuko sat on the counter, a safe distance away from splashing water. Her legs crossed, she leaned back on one long arm and studied her reflection in a spoon. She grunted.

"What about the owner, Reed? What do we do about him?" He scrubbed violently, baring his teeth as he growled into the dishwater. "What if he comes back? What if he _doesn't_?"

Yuuko dropped the spoon away from her face, watching with a raised eyebrow and an unimpressed purse to her lips. She flicked the utensil at his head.

"Ow!"

"Don't worry about it," She advised her fuming employee. "If he comes back, he comes back. If not," She shrugged, smiling gently. "Well, then I get an new helper, and you get a new roommate."

Watanuki eyes rounded as color spilled into his cheeks. "R-roommate."

"Surely you didn't expect him to shack up with _me._"

* * *

***peek***

**Uum...I have a lot of excuses. But I'm _very_ sorry for this delay (and on top of that, no fluff). I've already started the next chapter, but I need to figure out where I'm going to go from here, so for now, I won't make anymore comments about what's to come in following chapters- _unless _of course, it's already written. This has not been edited, but I'll look over it soon. **

**A MILLION apologies. All of you deserve so much better from me :(**

**-Oceans**

**(PS) Editing situation is looking a wee bit better.**


	19. Awkward!

**_Awkward!_**

The night was bearable, but awkward. Watanuki puzzled in the ten minutes there were before he fell asleep _why _exactly it felt so different to be sharing a room with Doumeki when it was his own.

It felt…_intimate_. Uncomfortably so. Whereas the guest room at Kurogane and Fai's home had been…just…normal. Whatever. They shared a room? So what. For some reason, here in his own, personal room, with his own things and his own bed, it was…well.

Maybe it was because he was familiar with the sounds that came to his ears through the dark. The occasional creaking of the building settling into itself, the tap-taps of rain on the roof. The rattling of the air-conditioner as it came on and off throughout the night. He knew them; was aware of them and at the same time, not. It was for this reason, he convinced himself, that Doumeki's breathing was so _loud_ and _obvious. _And it was keeping him awake.

So inconsiderate, that damn persocom thing. Breathing.

Watanuki rolled onto his side, looking at the stripes of light on the wall that came through the blinds.

---

Doumeki wasn't asleep either. How could he be, when the air of Watanuki's bedroom was so _full_ of interesting and wonderful smells? He hadn't forgotten his own curiosity as to what Watanuki's smell was like; it had just hit the back burner. What with all the insecurities, and that silly dictionary…really. He wanted to know who had left the book for him to find. Wanted to stand them upright and demand why they had dogged-eared the page with the definition of _human_ and had _highlighted _it, on top of that. As if they had intended to upset him.

He sighed through his nostrils. Goal achieved, if that was the case.

He thought back to Watanuki's words on the road. They sounded like something one of the characters from the book with the wizard would say. Or a person from that drama, _My Roommate, the Telepath._

On second thought, scratch that last one.

Doumeki shook his head clear gently, and turned on his side to go to sleep.

Maybe it was cooking spices he smelled.

***

The next day was, at first, nothing special. Watanuki wrapped up a pair of battery cables for a customer and sent her on her way early in the morning. Doumeki sat on a desk by the window and watched her leave, while the mechanic tittered around the garage, cleaning and organizing to keep himself busy. Mokona enjoyed fluttering after him and running a commentary about his work. Yuuko was engrossed in a daytime soap-opera in the office. All of them were shuttered off the rest; completely fixed in their own activities. Apart from Mokona's sporadic comments, Yuuko's television set, and the ever-present pattering of rain overhead, it was silent in the garage. Until Watanuki pulled a cardboard box of books from the bottom drawer of a filing cabinet, and squawked at its contents.

Yuuko leaned around her set. "What'd you find?"

He turned the book he held between trembling hands so she could see that cover.

Yuuko had barely looked at it when she burst into laughter.

"What the hell is _this_?" Watanuki squeaked.

Doumeki came back to himself with a start and turned away from the window, wondering what the noise was about.

"I'd completely forgotten about that- thank you, Watanuki! You've saved us from an awkward situation." She managed through her giggles. "Doumeki!"

Said man slid down from the desk and approached as if drawn in by her beckoning finger. Watanuki, his face still colored with something akin to horror and another something like consternation, moved closer as well.

Yuuko grinned at the not-persocom. "Doumeki dear," she purred, "I wonder if you feel any kind of…pressure, in this area?"

She hovered a hand over her hips.

Watanuki's face went white. He looked down at the book in his hands.

_Me and My_ _Potty! 2__nd__ Edition._ _New with bold type for young readers._

"You _can_ read, can't you?" Yuuko asked Doumeki through a shark-like grin.

***

"I cannot be_lieve_ you just _happened_ to have that." Watanuki grouched for what must have been the sixth time. It had been almost twenty minutes since Yuuko had sent Doumeki off with the book to the bathroom, and she had bullied him into watching her program with her until he returned.

"Shh!" She flapped a hand at him. "Kakei is giving out their assignment."

Watanuki rolled his eyes, muttering under his breath. "…don't know why you watch that show."

_My Roommate, the Telepath _was a low-budget soap opera with a surprisingly devoted following of teenage girls and young men questioning their sexual orientation. And Yuuko.

It followed the lives of the narrator, an empath, and his telepathic roommate, and through the jobs they accepted from a man remarkably like Yuuko where they put their psychic abilities to the test.

The young men were obviously and completely gay for each other. And it had to be more than a coincidence that the boss- Kakei- and his boyfriend were freaking clones of them.

It seemed like this episode was nothing but the two characters taking stock and turns staring at each other. And flashes of the useless boyfriend dozing behind the desk.

Having reappeared at some point Doumeki asked then, startling Watanuki- he'd actually gotten sucked into the television show, "Why are they doing that?"

"Doing what?" Yuuko asked monotonously without turning from the screen.

"Looking at each other all the time."

"Because they're in love."

Doumeki's brows furrowed. "Love…?"

Watanuki gave him a squinted look. "Love. You know, love? When your stomach feels all funny and you can't stop thinking about a person, and all you want to do is keep them safe and with you always."

Doumeki suddenly fixed Watanuki with a raptor-like stare, but the mechanic didn't notice. He was rolling his eyes at Yuuko's delight in her program.

***

That night as Doumeki lay on the floor, unable to sleep, he came to a decision.

About learning Watanuki's scent, he didn't want to wait anymore.

* * *

**Ohemgeeh. Did _not _expect to update this soon...but who's complaining? Heh. WELL! Legal Drug characters make a...quasi-cameo...and the "episode plot" is a not so subtle reference to Crystal Delphina's _Second Sunday_ (proceeded by _Third Tuesday_) fanfic. Total love. Extraordinarily sweet and sexy, I _thoroughly_ recommend :)**

**And is it completely fail that I cracked myself up while writing the middle? Cuz I did. I really did.**

**And THIS FANFIC IS _ALMOST DONE!!!! _Seriously people, I'm thinking, _maybe _two chapters left. I'd prefer one. This is rather sudden, isn't it? No, wait- probably two. Two ought to be enough.**

**-Oceans**

**EDIT// Rikuo's a telePATH, not teleKINETIC. *facepalm* I've been watching too much Heroes.**


	20. Conclusion

**Conclusion**

Watanuki wanted to know what the hell had gotten into Doumeki.

"_Look." _He bit, having long run out of patience. "I don't know where you got this silly idea, but-"

"What's so silly about it?" Doumeki fired back, cutting him off.

The mechanic fumed. This just wasn't his day. First, _first, _Ame-warashi shows up- Surprise!- just in time for breakfast. For a breakfast that he cooked, fully expecting to feed three people. Then she and Yuuko skip off to some pub off Nix St., Yuuko leaving behind a stack of paperwork up to Watanuki's knees and a promise to return…whenever.

And now this.

He _knew_ that heartbeat thing was going to come back to bite him in the ass, he just hadn't expected it so _soon_.

"You are _not_ in love with me." Watanuki growled at the other man. He was too irritated to even be embarrassed.

"That's for me to decide, isn't it?"

"When did you get so _stubborn?_" The mechanic turned his back on him to stretch onto his toes. The box of parts was _just_ out of his reach; his fingertips grazed it.

Doumeki ignored this. "You said yesterday- that love is when-"

"When your stomach feels funny and you can't stop thinking about a person, yadda yadda. So what? Any 10¢ romance novel will tell you the same thing. Doesn't amount to a…" He strained for the box. "…stack of dimes. Or a box of _parts_…!"

The taller man folded his arms and smirked, looking back between Watanuki and the shelf. "Short."

"Shut up!" Watanuki threw a hot look over his shoulder.

"I tested it last night."

The mechanic's heels hit the ground. He turned slowly, stunned. "What?"

"The theory. Or," He tilted his head to the side thoughtfully, eyes wandering. "Whatever it was. Funny stomach and all that. I thought it over, and tested it a few different ways."

He bent at the waist, bringing their faces closer and smiling when he noticed how Watanuki craned away.

"All tests positive. My heart beats for you, and I love you."

"Well, I-" But his voice cracked. Watanuki sneered, hoping the heat in his face didn't mean what it usually did, what it probably did. He spun back to the shelf, intent on the box. Oh god, were his ears red too?

And suddenly he squeaked as the whole length of his body was pressed against Doumeki's front. He felt the man's nose just beneath his ear and his arms securing him in place, threaded around his middle. He snapped with as much venom has he could manage, "What the fu—_what do you think you're doing?_"

"Last night I thought about how I could barely think, I was so scared when you got hit over the head in Wintervale. How I didn't want to leave you alone in their house, even though they promised all you needed was sleep. And all of your babbling before the doctor came and put you down…"

Watanuki swallowed with difficulty. "Yeah, so?"

Doumeki made a low noise in his chest, and Watanuki squirmed when the vibrations filtered into him. "I want to keep you safe. I don't want anything to happen to you. So there's one point."

"Point?"

"Hush." Warm air blew into his ear. Watanuki made a strange kind of half-yelp. "Last night, I smelled you-"

"-_smelled _me?"

"- I've wanted to since I was first able, but I thought you would pitch a fit and say no."

_Probably_, Watanuki admitted inwardly. His hands, having given up the fight against the larger man's grip, hung onto the arm that crossed his chest. Turning his head slightly, he caught Doumeki's eye, and the man smiled at him.

"It made my middle…_flip_, in a good way."

"Point two," Watanuki sighed.

"Point two." The not-persocom agreed.

The mechanic elbowed him. "Wait- what do I smell like?"

Doumeki's face melted into a warm expression. He smiled in a way that made Watanuki's blush intensify- darn it.

"Like grease," he said, considering.

The mechanic blinked, looking accusingly down at his hands. Well, at least he was honest.

"And cotton."

"My uniform-"

"And soap."

Watanuki strained to see the other's face. "That doesn't sound very romantic." He said blandly.

He felt Doumeki's shrug. "Does it have to?"

"I…guess not."

"Here." And the taller man's hands were gone from his chest and clasping his arms, guiding him through a slow turn until they were facing each other. "Tell me what I smell like."

Watanuki gave him a scrunched up look that didn't really translate into anything, and, sighing, pushed his face into the center of Doumeki's t-shirt.

Ame-warashi's comment came so clearly to his mind at that moment, she could have been whispering into his ear.

_"It's so difficult to find people with such a fresh scent nowadays."_

Fresh? Watanuki's hands had risen up to hold Doumeki's sides, and the other man's paw rested, warm and heavy on his head. Only a small part of him was aware of it.

The rain-spirit was right, he realized with a start. _Fresh_. Like that morning when he first woke to find Doumeki, then unnamed, meandering around the garage, touching and studying and looking with bright curiosity. Sunlight, thick and unspoiled, spilling in from all sides. It made that aura of vulnerability that much stronger, but Watanuki hadn't noticed at the time.

He thought for the first time that a _lot _of things went unnoticed by him.

Doumeki's fingers twitched in his hair, reminded Watanuki where and when he was. This was not the time for an epiphany. He was standing in the _embrace_- god, when had that happened again?- of a person-computer that had come alive in his home almost two weeks ago, and was now trying to convince him that he was in love. And then Watanuki had to rein in his thoughts before they went any further in _that_ direction- one which would ultimately force the question at him that he was only through sheer pig-headedness ignoring. The one that asked him, why was he so sure that Doumeki couldn't fall in love?

"Watanuki,"

The mechanic peeked, and quickly hid his eyes. Right, right, smell. Doumeki smells like…

Watanuki groaned softly, prompted Doumeki- looking down at him already- to wrinkle his brow in uncertainty.

_My stomach did not just _flip, he thought fiercely. _Such a fucking cliché…_

He stepped back from Doumeki's hold, his back bumping the table gently, and dropped his hands.

"Sorry," He shrugged lightly. "I can't…really…say."

Doumeki leaned back to focus on him hard. "Can't say?"

"Yeah, I just…don't really know how to…put it into words. I guess it's like Ame-warashi said- just…fresh."

The side of the other man's mouth turned up in a little half-smirk. "Fresh, huh."

Watanuki threw his hands up hopelessly, huffing.

---

Yuuko stirred the steaming brown liquid in her tea cup idly, watching the flakes in it swirl around.

Across the two-person booth from her, Ame-warashi munched passively on a cake donut as her eyes wandered over the other occupants of the café for the fourth time. Swallowing, she brought her elbows to the table with a clonk and fixed Yuuko with a pointed stare. "When's this illegal partner of yours going to show up? I'm tired of waiting."

"Soon," the woman replied vaguely, smiling at the young spirit's impatience.

Ame-warashi opened her mouth to deliver a scathing retort when the bell chiming above the door cut her off. A moment later, a tall figure stopped by their shared table, extracted long arms from a dark jacket that was speckled with rainwater, and slide into the seat next to Yuuko. The rain-spirit eyed the newcomer critically as he took the ballcap from his head and, depositing it on the tabletop, smiled warmly.

"Hello," said Clow Reed.

---

"You look annoyed." Doumeki observed.

Watanuki did not appreciate the meaningful look in the man's eye. "I do not."

One dark eyebrow rose, and the mechanic's flush deepened.

"…fine. But-"

"Did your stomach flip?"

Watanuki froze with a squeak. "W-w- no! It didn't."

Doumeki placed a hand on table, one on either side of him. "I don't believe you."

The mechanic growled. He was too close. "You don't have to believe me. It didn't." The was less than an inch of air separating their noses. Watanuki _really_ wished there were more.

"Liar." Doumeki insisted.

"Nnn…" Watanuki bent away, uncomfortable.

"Do you think about me all the time?"

"No!" But he kind of did.

"You blush a lot. Doesn't that mean you like me?"

"It means I let you watch too much TV."

_I hate bantering. I always lose. _Watanuki thought.

The phone went off in the office, and Watanuki nearly crumpled to the floor, his knees weak with relief. Stuttering half-formed excuses he pushed out from between the table and Doumeki and darted for the telephone. The not-persocom rolled his eyes and followed after him.

Watanuki twirled a finger anxiously in the cord. "Hello?"

"Kimihiro, I may have gotten something about your little Pinocchio,"

The mechanic startled, firing a swift look at Doumeki. "Fai? I didn't really expect to get this call…"

"To be honest, I never expected to make it. But I did actually find something." He could hear the grin in the man's voice. "And if it really is about Shizuka, then it explains a lot about the _how _that threw us for a loop. The _why _is still a little foggy though…"

"And?" Watanuki prompted, trying to force the wizard's attention back to where it needed to be at that moment. "What'd you find?"

"Ah!" He cleared his throat. "It seems a Nether Countries spirit was asking questions about giving life around the Higher Plains. Of course, this is just a rumor you understand, but it's better than anything else we've got…-"

Watanuki cut him off. "Do you know what kind of spirit it was?"

"If word is true, then it ought to be a little rain-spirit. Watanuki?"

But the mechanic had dropped the phone. He looked up into Doumeki's curious gaze and hissed angrily.

---

"Tch." Ame-warashi's lip hitched up on one side. "You weren't allowed to help Yuuko with this. The bet was between the _two _of us. She violated to the rules by bringing you in, and that should mean I win by default."

Yuuko shook the spoon she had been stirring her tea with at her. "Pa!" She turned the utensil on Reed. "Don't listen to her. We've already been over it between ourselves- no such rule was ever put down."

The man smiled winningly. "That's good. I'd hate to be an instrument of your dishonesty."

Yuuko grinned as Ame-warashi huffed and beat her petite fists on the table. "Cheating, cheating! It went without saying!"

"My dear friend, _nothing _in this world goes, 'without saying,'" The older woman purred, Reed's laughter in the background. She tapped one tightly curled hand with the spoon. "Just remember that for next time. I do listen to the rules when they are clearly stated, you know."

"You do?" Clow's eyes glittered.

"Believe it or not."

"Not." The rain-spirit sneered, before slumping into her seat, defeated. "_Fine_…but I'm still not happy about it."

"Dually noted." Yuuko said. "But now, I think it would be prudent to review the terms of our bet."

"Certainly helpful," Reed agreed, pulling a mug of coffee left by the waitress to him.

"Right." Ame-warashi sat up. "Right, our bet was whether or not an inanimate object given life could love like a human or Higher Being."

"The time limit for this little experiment was two weeks," Yuuko cooed softly, back to stirring her tea. "Which I found extremely unfair."

"Makes us even." The spirit glared.

"What did the object have to do to prove it was in love?" Reed asked.

The rain-spirit shrugged daintily. "Nothing complicated. Just say 'I love you,'"

"To my fabulous employee," Yuuko added, eyes shining mischievously.

Reed winced sympathetically.

"Yuuko told me when the object she had chosen was in place, and I sent the thunder storm with the spell in it to bring the thing alive." Ame-warashi continued. "And here we are, nearly two weeks later. The deadline's almost here."

Clow lifted the mug up to his lips and spoke around it. "And who gets what if what happens?"

"If _I _won, and Doumeki did fall in love, then Ame-warashi," here Yuuko paused to smile sweetly at the fuming spirit. "would have to move those dreadful storm clouds that are always hovering over Summerfield."

"Move them where?"

Ame-warashi toyed with the uneaten half of her donut busily. "We agreed on the grasslands between Summerfield and the drylands."

Reed lowered his drink, eyes fractionally wider. "But if you did that, the runoff would swell the river that goes through Tuskau Canyon.

Yuuko sidled closer to him. "That river hasn't been more than a stream in sixty years, thanks to _this _one's messing with things before she knew what she was doing." Ame-warashi bristled at the jab. "It will only be returned to the way it is supposed to be."

Clow Reed turned his eyes from the woman next to him to the red plastic of the booth by Ame-warashi's head. He said thoughtfully, "If the Shorrow River becomes an actual _river _again, then the vegetation will eventually come back…"

"And the soil will change," Yuuko pushed softly, barely containing her excitement.

Ame-warashi huffed, tired of looking between the two opposite her and puzzling over their words. "What? Someone, please, cut to the chase."

Reed smiled. "If the soil changes and the plants come back, the Mocuzz Valyum will not grow."

"And Wintervale will revert back to the wonderful place it was before." Yuuko nodded stoutly. "Not to mention, the people of Summerfield will see the sun again. And the grasslands will continue to grow as they have without the irrigation systems."

"The Central Council has scheduled that for review." Reed realized. He nudged Yuuko with a gentle elbow. "You scheming wench, you knew they were going to shut down the system."

"Didn't the saying go, three birds with one stone?"

"It's usually two," Reed said into his coffee mug. "But I know when to let well enough alone."

---

Doumeki didn't understand.

"I don't understand. Why is it a bad thing that Ame-warashi made me human?"

Watanuki did not look up from his pacing, only growled as he again passed the man leaning against the support pole.

"It's not that it's a _bad_ thing. If Ame-warashi is involved, and I'm involved, then you know damn well that _Yuuko_ is involved. I'm tired of being that woman's toy." The young man snarled, kicking a wrench away from him. "She's always messed with my life whenever she wanted to, ever since I was fifteen. I do _not_ appreciate it!"

Doumeki frowned. "But this time at least, she didn't do a bad thing."

Watanuki paused to glare at him. "_What?_"

He shrugged, unconcerned with the nasty look aimed his way. "I'm alive, and we love each other. That's not a bad thing."

"_We do not love each other!!"_ Watanuki screamed, shaking his fists furiously.

Doumeki rolled his eyes skyward. "Your stomach flipped."

"We did NOT finish that discussion. I am NOT in love with you." The mechanic resumed his pacing for a moment before whirling, "And it did NOT flip."

"Sure."

"It- _urgggh!_"

And then for a few minutes, Doumeki watched silently as he made his way back and forth, then he muttered, half to himself, "At least you're not trying to convince me I don't love _you _anymore."

"You don't." Watanuki said without energy.

"I do." He sensed victory coming his way, on this front at least.

Watanuki eyeballed him before seeming to concede the point with a shrug. "Whatever."

Doumeki pushed off from the pole with one foot. "And you're in love with me." He said as he stepped into the mechanic's path. Watanuki, his eyes on the floor, nearly walked into him. He looked up.

"I'm not," he sighed.

Doumeki unfolded his arms, taking the young man's face between his hands and marveling at the light blush that came to those cheeks. So different from the deep flush from half an hour ago. He brushed a long strand of hair back with a thumb.

"I really think you are," he said softly.

Watanuki's eyes darted this way and that, determined to not to meet Doumeki's golden stare.

It could only have been a minute, but he felt like hours had passed when he finally prepared to speak again. His tongue was dry, and he had to wet his mouth.

"I guess I could be," he muttered, shifting his feet.

Doumeki gave that warm look again. It made him want to touch his face.

"Do you want to share your points?"

The flush grew a little darker. "I…yeah, okay. Um, when I…" He breathed in deeply, and Doumeki's thumbs stroked over his cheekbones. "…when I woke up in Fai and Kurogane's guest room, I got nervous when I realized you weren't there. And I panicked when I saw the bandage over your eye after the crash." He looked up sadly. "I was scared on the road too, when we were walking."

Watanuki swallowed thickly as he thought. Doumeki's breath caught when his eyes suddenly lit up. "…But I was proud when you learned how to smell and feel,"

"And your stomach flipped when you smelled me," Doumeki pushed, smiling goofily and touching their foreheads together.

"Argh! Fine, you win. The damn thing flipped."

---

Yuuko suddenly jerked as her cell phone buzzed and pumped out a jaunty tune. The table went quiet as she stared blankly at it for half a second, before jumping in her seat and calling out loudly, "_YES!_ Yes yes yes yes yes yes-!"

Ame-warashi kicked her under the table at the same time Clow planted a firm hand on her shoulder. "Yuuko!! You witch, what-?!"

"Yuuko," Reed said with volume, hoping to be heard over her chants. "Care to explain?" Instead of answering, she shoved the little piece of tech into his face with such speed she nearly knocked him in the teeth. He looked around the phone and cocked a questioning brow.

Buzzing with excitement and breathing heavily from her little dancing fit, Yuuko glanced at them both. "We need to get back to the shop."

"Why?"

"Because _I _just won the bet."

---

"It flipped." Doumeki repeated happily.

Watanuki shoved his chest. "Shut it."

"It _fli_p_ped_." A sing-song.

"Stop!!" He whined, shaking the taller man by fistfuls of shirt. Doumeki laughed and captured his wrists, making sure their heads continued touch. Watanuki stopped shaking, and Doumeki stopped talking.

For a minute, they just breathed, and then Doumeki opened his eyes. "Hey,"

Watanuki peeked, his eyelids at half-mast.

"Hey."

"Fai told about something that people do when they're in love."

The mechanic made a questioning sound in the back of his throat.

Doumeki leaned in and kissed the corner of his mouth.

And there was a flash and an automatic, fake shutter sound, and a moment later a loud squeal of glee from the street outside.

Watanuki stumbled, blinking, away from Doumeki, who straightened and scowled at the front door. The mechanic rubbed furiously at the tingling place that Doumeki had kissed and-

-froze when his eyes tripped over the sight of black Mokona, perched on a neat stack of tires and half hidden behind a second support pole, clumsily supporting a cell phone between its fingerless paws. Watanuki was just beginning to growl at the shivering, wide-eyed robot when the door threw open and Yuuko grappled onto him.

"Oooooooooh, Watanuki I _love _you boy, so much! Love you love you _looove_ _yoooou~!"_

"What-?" He gasped, trying to dislodge her choking grip.

Doumeki spared a glance at them before returning his sharp stare to the tall stranger that had come through the door behind Yuuko at a much more realistic speed. He wasn't concerned with Ame-warashi, though he thought it might be good idea for her to disappear before Watanuki realized she was present. "Who are you?" He asked the man.

The stranger blinked once before grinning sunnily. "Clow Reed. Nice to see you again, Shizuka."

Ame-warashi snapped her umbrella closed and shook water from it curtly. "Dang it. Now I won't get my-"

There was a loud squawk from the clump that was Watanuki and Yuuko. Reed winced, and Doumeki quickly guessed why. Watanuki must have seen the screen of the phone in Yuuko's white-knuckled grip, and the open message there.

He whirled on Mokona, who had been trying to sneak away in the all the commotion. "_You!"_ The mechanic screamed, and dived for the bot as well as he could with his employer wrapped around him.

The little robot squeaked with alarm and darted away, abandoning its cell phone. Yuuko laughed hysterically has she clung to the young man.

Reed smacked his hand to his forehead with a resounding slap and shared a long look with Ame-warashi. "Perhaps it's time to introduce a little sanity to Yuuko's chaos," he propositioned the rain-spirit.

She gave him a dry stare. "Please."

Doumeki, having listened, promptly turned and kicked the stack of tires into an empty filing cabinet.

The subsequent noise cut over all others, and Yuuko stopped laughing, Watanuki stopped scrambling for Mokona, and the little robot stopped crying. Five sets of eyes fixed on Doumeki, and he shrugged.

"Sorry. Had to."

Clow gave a shuddering sigh.

* * *

**HOLY FUCKING GOD IS IT LONG ENOUGH.**

**But anyway, **_**the Grand Conclusion! **_**So what'd you think? Good? Bad? Silly? Stupid? Did I tie up all of my loose ends? Hope I did. I'd left more than had been planned for. And there's the fluff. Finally. I vomited cotton ball bunny rabbit tails, but I did it. **

**One more chapter left to go, an epilogue type thing. About like the introduction. **

**Totally and completely unedited. Want to go to bed. Type-type for a long time. Do later.**

**Also, I'm going to take advantage of an opportunity to advertise another story in the works. I'll give more information about it in the epilogue, and my round of thanks. It's sure to be gushy, guys. The thanks, I mean.**

**-Oceans**

**EDIT// Read through it and fixed the most obvious errors, but I'm sure there are more I missed.**


	21. An Epilogue

**An Epilogue (Of Sorts)**

For some reason, Watanuki wanted to say that everything worked out funny. But it really didn't- things kind of…went back to the way they had been before two weeks ago. Except, now, Watanuki shared his bedroom with a grabby roommate(-slash-boyfriend?) and Yuuko had a second employee.

Not to insinuate that Watanuki's workload in any way diminished. New tasks seemed to appear overnight for Doumeki, and the young man was still called upon to cook and clean. Mokona didn't seem to have quite as much fun bothering Doumeki, so the pleasure of batting the little robot away also remained Watanuki's.

Everything just kind of…leveled out. Clow Reed dropped in to visit occasionally, for Friday night mahjong and drinks. Sometimes they were joined by Ame-warashi and, as before, sometimes she and Yuuko stumbled drunkenly into the garage in the early hours of the morning, screaming dirty songs about honey pots and bananas at the top of their lungs.

Four days after the Yuuko's bet was completed, Kurogane called the garage to demand 'what the fuck did Yuuko do,' because apparently, it had rained everyday since Fai reported his findings. Six months after _that_ herb season was around the corner, and Wintervale imploded into itself, Lawmen versus Loreds in a bloody crescendo to the season when it became undeniable that the Mocuzz Valyum would not grow in waterlogged soil. Yuuko lent help when it was asked for, and Ame-warashi was most likely behind a few continently timed storms and the miniature civil war had run its course in little over three months. The city began to struggle, like a child taking its first steps, to learn to function without the Mocuzz plants' poison rotting its population. The economy, society- all of it was tied up in the drugs and drink. Some of the citizens were appalled to find exactly how heavily their city depended on the plants. Remaking Wintervale from the ground up, on top of repairing the damage done to the city in the upheaval and setting straight the remaining Loreds- whether this meant the rehabilitation program from Hell, or running them out in groups- was tiring work, but Watanuki never heard a word of complaint from the citizens, and neither did Doumeki.

In a blink, a year had passed since Yuuko and Ame-warashi's bet, and closely following Mokona's long-ago promised play-date with white Mokona, Reed began to stop in more often. For two weeks Watanuki and Doumeki caught fleeting glimpses of him and Yuuko, but not much more. The night before the post office promised the package containing Mokona would show up on their step, Yuuko and Clow invited Ame-warashi to a friendly get-together which Watanuki, of course, catered for. At the sum of the evening, they presented her with a wrapped box.

After a moment of childish glee upon receiving a gift, Ame-warashi tore into the present and lifted out a…pink Mokona.

Yuuko explained the next day, when their own black Mokona was tucked away in a corner with a pillow, that if Ame-warashi had won the bet she would have taken black Mokona away. As Yuuko had never intended to _lose_, she and Clow Reed had planned since the beginning to give the rain-spirit one of her own.

"That means that there are, officially, in this universe, _six_ Mokonas!"

To this Watanuki replied, pale faced, with, "…six?"

The day Watanuki turned twenty-one, Doumeki gave him a kiss and a promise, and Yuuko ordered out. The mechanic's single cot was replaced, sometime during the day, with a proper bed, and Watanuki was very careful to not notice her lavish wink the next morning.

* * *

**FIN! **

**Okay...now...for my mushygushy thanks to..._all of you wonderful people! _This is HUGE for me- because this is the only story or piece of writing that I've finished that was longer than two chapters. BIG DEAL, GUYS. And I'm convinced that it is thanks, in no small part, to everyone who has reviewed and taken from me the option to procrastinate for months on end. You've all been so wonderful, and so encouraging, and I'm convinced I don't deserve you, but thank _yoooooooou! _I had a million things to say, but I can't...just, thank you so much. Thank you for reading my story, and telling me your opinions, and what you liked and didn't like, and pointing out things and helping and....shutting up now.**

**Summarized: *GLOMP* THANKYOUALLILOVEYOUVERYMUCHLY!!**

**...and now for my shameless self-advertising episode. Off and on I've been working on another xxxHolic 104 story, and I'm really about 80 percent finished now. The summary I'm thinking of going with is this: **A mysterious warlock offers to trade with Hero Doumeki Shizuka: the color of his eye for five, unconditional favors. AU 104 DouWata, set in Fable: The Lost Chapters universe **:D This one I'm having sooooo much fun with, I hope you all like it as well as I do if you read. Dunno when I'll be finished, but I just wanted to give a heads up.**

**Lovelovelovelove!**

**-Oceans**


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